Playing House
by dragon dreams
Summary: What if Shohoku's troublesome duo are forced to work on a project together? What if they are forced to play house! Final chapter added!
1. Phase One

Disclaimer: This series is not called fanfiction for nothing. Playing House: Phase 1 

Ms. Tak Tanada nervously flattened her hair and clutched her books and bag nearer to her body as she approached the door to 2-3.  She briefly ran through the "reminders" her older co-teachers had told her.

_Watch out for the redhead Sakuragi. He's a troublemaker._

_Whatever you do, don't EVER wake up Rukawa if he should fall asleep in your class._

_That Mito is a good kid but he's bestfriends with Sakuragi so watch out for him too._

_Seishirou is shy, very shy. Make sure you're near her when you want to hear her speak._

_Rukawa is considered a god by half of the girls and some boys in the whole school. Don't be surprised if some of them start chanting his name right in the middle of class._

_That Akagi girl  is a basketball fanatic and will often drift off into a daydream and give out basketball terms as answers to your questions. It'll probably be worse since her idol is sitting a few seats behind her._

_Sakuragi hates Rukawa's guts and vice versa. It's only natural for them to fight in the middle of a lesson._

_Oh and he likes the Akagi girl. Messy love triangle that._

_I still don't know how the three most troublesome kids ended up in the same class! Someone in the registration must really hate us teachers._

_Yes, remember how that Sakuragi and that Rukawa almost destroyed the gym?_

_Or that time Mito and those other three friends had a huge fight with some gangsters?_

_If only they weren't needed in basketball or scary as hell…_

Ms Tanada smiled at a passing student.

Personally she couldn't imagine how much trouble a high school student could get into. Then again she had been a role model when she was just a student. Also, kids nowadays had so much extra energy that they couldn't help but attract trouble.

Her smiled widened.

Oh well, maybe she could channel their excess energy into something more productive. 

It had taken a lot of persuasions and revisions but her pet program had been approved just before the school started.

She reached the door for Second Year, Class Three. She took a deep breath and opened the door just as the bell sounded.

Project Playing House Phase One was about to start.

-To be continued-

A/N: I don't know if this has been done before. Please tell me if anyone has done this concept before. Send all comments through that small review button. Anonymous critics are most welcome.


	2. Chapter 1: The Project

Playing House Chapter 1: The Project 

Ms. Tanada took a deep breath, opened the door, and reeled from the blast of voices that came from the room. It took her several seconds to get back her bearings and shake the stars off from her eyes.

She took a brief moment to appreciate how the door had masked the level of noise the students were making. She then stepped inside and sealed her fate as she closed the door. 

She surveyed the room as she walked towards the teacher's table. The blackboard was littered with graffiti. Some students were chatting near the windows. Some girls were clustered around a particular table where a tuft of black hair was draped over the table. That would be Rukawa. There was a redhead, whom she guessed to be the infamous Sakuragi, alternately glaring at the group and gaping at a brown haired girl whose eyes were glued to the dark head. A good-natured guy with slicked back dark hair smiled at everything. He seemed to be the only one aware that she had arrived. Ms. Tanada guessed he would be Mito since he seemed to be the only one interested in what Sakuragi was doing.

Ms. Tanada reached the table and cleared her throat. Nothing happened.

"Uhm…hello…class…"

They still ignored her. She saw Mito try to get Sakuragi's attention. Try being the operative word.

She tried to make her voice louder.

"Class, please be seated." 

Still nothing.

"QUUUIIIIIEEEETTT!!!"

Everyone froze, staring at her giant disfigured head. Then people madly scrambled to their seats. Even the tousled head of Rukawa lifted up to regard her while Sakuragi managed to focus his attention to her.

"Er…that's better," Ms. Tanada's voice lowered in volume. She smiled at them. "My name is Ms. Tanada. I will be your Social Studies teacher for this year."

She never lost her smile as she went through her practiced introductions. Remarkably the whole class remained quiet and attentive. They had learned for a brief moment not to incur her wrath again.

"Now, the major part of your grades will be based on a special project I will ask you to do."

She noted that all eyes were still glued to her, even those of Rukawa's.

"Our lessons will deal with how modern society is like. How people live their daily lives. You probably don't even know or care how food is served on your tables everyday. Do you even know how much your parents make just to be able to send you to school?"

Several students shook their heads.

"Just as I thought. So, here's what you'll be doing this year," she moved to the front of the table, her hands clasped tightly in front of her, "I will pair each of you. Then I will give you small assignments that will test your ability to survive in modern society under certain circumstances. You and your partners will be—" she paused for some dramatic effect, "playing house!"

Crickets practically chirped in the silence the pervaded the room. Ms. Tanada looked at her students expectantly. No one moved. She blinked at them. One student slowly raised her hand.

"Yes?" she smiled kindly at the uncertain girl.

"Uhm, when you say "play house" what exactly do you mean by that?"

A random voice at the back of the class shouted, "Yeah does that mean we're gonna live together in the same house from now on?" 

Most eyes turned to Rukawa whose own eyes were beginning to droop.

"Oh no! No!" Ms. Tanada waved her hands and all gazed at her once again. "The Board would never approve that! Although there will be a time when you will do a sort of sleepover in your partner's house…." 

Some students developed glazed looks.

"No," Ms. Tanada quickly said. "What you'll be doing is this. I will be giving you a specific budget and it will be up to you to organize it enough to survive for about three months. It will be as if you and your partner will be…hmm…newlywed couples."

Heart-shaped eyes were riveted one more time to Rukawa.

"You all will start on an equal footing meaning you will be given a budget and nothing else," Ms. Tanada gestured vaguely around the room. "It will be up to you to scout out your imaginary house, your imaginary furniture, etc. The outcome will depend on how well you manage what you will be given."

A tanned hand went up into the air. Everyone gaped at Sakuragi.

"Your project sounds fishy," he stated. "Exactly how will we be graded for this?"

Jaws dropped to their tables. Sakuragi had actually shown some interest in the project and had actually asked an intelligent question.

"Like I said, I will give you assignments that will affect your starting plan. Say for next week I want you to submit what kind of house you and your partner agree to live in," she moved her fingers in the universal sign of quote, unquote as she said the last two words. 

"You can choose an apartment or a complex or you can even scout for a real house," she further explained. "You will submit to me what you have put together, which I will then grade. I will compile all those pieces of homework and give them to you after about one month. You will then make a report on what you have accomplished so far. This report will have another corresponding grade. This project will be in three phases so I will expect three full reports. At the last phase, you will make an overall presentation plus the written report."

Mito raised his hand.

"That sounds like a lot of work," he commented. "Don't you think we're a little too young to be doing that?"

Ms. Tanada nodded, "Yes it is a lot of work. And no, I don't think you're too young to be doing this. You're old enough to make decisions. Think of this project as an exercise at decision-making. Only this time you'll be able to erase your data and start over if you think you've made the wrong choice."

"Don't some people just inherit some stuff or even their houses from their parents?" another student queried.

"Yes, but as I said I want you all to start on an equal footing. No inherited houses or cars no matter how filthy rich your parents may be." Ms. Tanada smiled. "That will make the grading much easier."

She looked around.

"Are there any more questions?"

No one raised a hand. They were all still digesting all the information that they had just been given.

"If there aren't any, why don't we start this whole thing off by seeing who will be partnered with whom."

Shrill voices erupted yet again.

"I want to be with Rukawa!"

"No you can't be with him 'cause he's gonna be partnered with me!"

"No with me!"

"Me!"

"Shut up bitches, Rukawa will be _my_ partner!"

The classroom was again treated to a brief period of silence as everyone looked at the blond boy glaring at the girls who had made the earlier remarks.

"Ahem!"

The students turned wide eyes back to their teacher.

"To be, er, fair, why don't you just write your names on any piece of paper, put them in—can anyone lend me a bowl or erm, anything deep?"

Someone thrust a pencil case in her hands.

"Thank you. Put your names in here and I will pick out two random names who will then be partnered together. Sound good to you?"

Some people groaned.

"Unless of course you have any other ideas," Ms. Tanada said with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Her students quickly pulled out pieces of paper each one hoping to be partnered with at least someone suitable for them *cough*Rukawa*cough*. Everyone thought that, except for the resident redhead who fervently wished to be partnered with Haruko and the sleepy basketball star who just wanted to be left alone.

All of Second Year, Class Three should have realized that fate took a perverse delight in thwarting wishes.

-To be continued-

A/N: To all who reviewed: rj, Hisashi Loves Yelen, Tina Caps, Kuroi Neko-kun, lambie, annalei, sLL, unchained, and hagane, thank you very much. 

More questions anyone? More reviews?


	3. Chapter 2: The Teammates

Playing House Chapter 2: The Teammates 

Before the start of the new term, the teachers of Shohoku High assigned to rooms 201 and 202 had developed a system of filtering the noise that they had anticipated coming from the room adjacent to theirs. They planned to simply let the racket enter one ear and pass the other. 

It was a big surprise for them that during the third period, of the first day no less, hardly any noise passed through the walls after the bell had rung. Ordinarily they would have praised Buddha for this small bit of peace but their curiosity ate at them. They would have gone out of their classes and peeped through the next room door had their students not been there to witness their spying. They just contented themselves with keeping one ear open for any sound coming from the other side.

They would have had heart attacks if they had known that the class had actually been listening and participating as if interested in the subject since the new teacher had given them the scary face treatment. They were currently engrossed in writing their names on pieces of paper. Of course this was no ordinary class so there were the (un)usual student or two or ten taking their work to the extreme.

When Hanamichi Sakuragi finished writing his name, he immediately proceeded to offer it up to a mini-shrine that suddenly popped up on his table. Sneaking glances at the two people that haunted his life, he muttered a mantra under his breath that went something like, "Pair me up with Haruko. (hopeful glance) Please pair me up with Haruko. Don't pair her with Rukawa. (glare) Me. Partner her with me. (hopeful glance) Not Rukawa. (glare)"

Two rows from him, several girls and some boys were doing the same rite only with a different chant.

"RU-KA-WA. RU-KA-WA. PART-NER-ME-WITH-RU-KA-WA."

Haruko Akagi's friends looked at the chanting students then shifted their eyes to their friend who was thankfully not praying but whose glazed eyes showed to anyone who cared to look that she wasn't exactly in the same plane of existence as them either.

Three seats behind the dreaming brunette, Kaede Rukawa was drooling all over his piece of paper as he took the lull as an opportunity to snooze.

The whole class came back to earth when Ms. Tanada announced in a firm voice that carried all the way to the back that they put all their slips of paper in the assigned pencil case.

The obsessed students offered a final prayer before submitting their names. One brave girl asked Kaede if he wanted her to submit his name for him. The boy merely squinted at her before shoving his paper to his seatmate, Youhei, who had stood up to give his and Hanamichi's names. Youhei shrugged before taking the slip and dumping all three items inside the pencil case.

"Okay," Ms. Tanada said as all papers were put in. She shook the case around as she spoke. "I'll be picking out two names for each draw."

Everyone held their breath as she picked out the first two names.

"Mina Seishirou and Youhei Mito."

Ms. Tanada smiled at Youhei who was looking at a bespectacled girl sitting near the door at the front.

"Nyahahaha Youhei, you're lucky you got partnered with a cute girl," Hanamichi whispered loudly as he poked Youhei's ribs. His friend merely replied with a smile.

There was a collective sigh of relief before another sharp intake of breath was taken as the next two names were called. This cycle went on until most of the students' names had been picked out. All of Rukawa fans were disappointed when their prayers had not been answered. Worse, some of them had been partnered with rival Rukawa fans.

"For the last pair of the class…"

Everyone looked around. They had not really kept track on who had been partnered with whom. Most knew that Rukawa's name had not been called up but the other name escaped their minds.

"Kaede Rukawa and …"

Most of his fans gazed at the silent boy who seemed to be intently studying his table. If they had bothered to look at little bit to his right they would have noticed the quietly laughing boy seated beside him and the unusually silent class-loudmouth.

"Oh my," the class stared at their teacher, "our last pair is Kaede Rukawa and Hanamichi Sakuragi."

-And so the fun begins. To be continued-

A/N: 

1. To all who reviewed, thank you very much. To those who asked whether this will be yaoi or not, all I can say is you can view the next chapters in two ways. One, Hanamichi develops a bond with Rukawa as close as the one he shares with Youhei or two, he flirts with Kaede and vice-versa. It's up to you to decide. Although considering all the other fics I've done…^___^;

2. I'm not sure about the room number. I'm just assuming that the second year students would be assigned to the rooms at the second floor of the buildings. Anyone care to clarify if this is correct?

3. Let's see, the chair arrangements would be Kaede near the window, Youhei beside him then Hanamichi, all three occupying most of the back row. Haruko would be somewhere near the front row in front of Kaede. 


	4. Chapter 3: The Reactions

Playing House Chapter 3: The Reactions 

**_There was absolute silence_**_._

No one moved. No one blinked. No one even breathe. 

All stared at the teacher, who in turn, eyed the two slips of paper in her hands. The silence stretched on until, predictably, Hanamichi broke it with a shrill—

"WWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT??????!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Youhei let out the guffaw he had been holding back and this signaled the whole class to erupt.

_Not that red-haired monkey!_

_Rukawa was supposed to be my partner!_

_Oh my._

_NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!_

_HA-HA-HA!_

_Woah! Those two…weird!_

"Quiet everyone."

_Aaaahhh! Those two are going to work together! _

_The world is coming to an end!_

_We're all doomed!_

"Quiet!"

_NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!_

_HA-HA-HA! MWE-HE-HE-HE! *snort* HE-HE!_

_Poor Rukawa! That ugly face is gonna make him fail!_

_Oh the horror! Rukawa!_

_NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!_

_HA-HA-HA!_

"I said QUIEEEEEETTTT!!!"

Class 2-3 was once again treated to the Terrible Gigantic Head of Doom aka Ms. Tanada's angry face. Students settled down into an uneasy silence except for the redhead who had decided to just bang his head on his table with a muffled exclamation or two to boot. The raven-haired half of the newly declared partnership was as stoic as ever, although a very visible tick showed on his forehead.

"Now," Ms. Tanada took a deep breath and smiled calmly, "that's much better. Listen class—"

"This is really great," Haruko interrupted. "Now Rukawa and Sakuragi can try to become friends!"

Everyone gaped at the smiling girl. All jumped when the bell suddenly rang signaling the end of class. Ms. Tanada quickly gathered her things.

"Now class please read page 20 of your textbook for Wednesday. See you then!"

She beat a hasty retreat before the second wave of protests that she sensed came. Still, Sakuragi's loud voice caught up with her.

"I'm telling you this just once fox! I am not working with you—ever!"

She did not hear Rukawa's quiet but cold answer. All of his classmates heard quite clearly though.

"Who wants to be partnered with you? D'aho."

"What did you say?" Hanamichi stood up, ready to pounce.

Youhei was too busy catching his breath to stop him this time.

"D'aho."

Rukawa also stood up, glaring at his nemesis.

Several students rushed out of the classroom as fast as Ms. Tanada did just to avoid the impending fight. More importantly, they used the 10-minute break to tell fellow students what had happened. In a short while, half of Shohoku already knew what had occurred during Ms. Tanada's Social Studies class. By lunch the whole school had heard of the news.

_Hey, you know about Rukawa and Sakuragi…_

_During the new teacher's class…_

_Yeah, that's really bad._

_What was Ms. Tanada thinking when she conceptualized this project!_

_I pity their classmates._

_I pity the teacher!_

_Imagine those two together on a project?!_

_My imagination doesn't want to go there._

_Unbelievable!_

_¥500 says they'll fail that class._

_¥500 says they'll change partners even before the next meeting._

Hanamichi's gang had a different say on the subject when they saw him at lunch.

"Yo! Hanamichi! So tell us, who's the bride and who's the groom between you and Rukawa?!"

Of course they didn't get to finish their meal after Hanamichi had given each of them his famous special head-butt, twice for Youhei whom he owed a head-butt after the laughing incident in class.

The comments, however, went on until the first meeting of the various clubs that afternoon.

_Wow! Did you hear about Rukawa and Hanamichi being partners! Wow!_

_Yeah! Didn't they bring home the trophy at last winter's finals?_

_Yeah. I hear they're really good working together and stuff!_

_Nah. _I_ heard that they hate each other but they just work together for basketball because they really love the game._

_I heard they're both in love with the same girl so they're trying to outdo each other in basketball._

_Nah! It's only Sakuragi who's got a crush on somebody._

_I've seen those two. Rukawa used to be in my school. He's really quiet and cool. That Sakuragi looks like trouble. He's not really that good, only lucky with his shots. It must be terrible for Rukawa being paired with that noisy, bragging—_

The new basketball recruit from Tomigaoka learned firsthand what the Sakuragi-special-head-butt felt like. The other freshmen of the group realized quickly that no matter what they thought, it was better to just keep their opinions to themselves. They _all_ learned that a pissed off Hanamichi Sakuragi and an angry Kaede Rukawa is not a good combination, especially if those two vent their frustrations on the dangerous game of basketball. Most of that afternoon's session was spent trying to pry the two players apart and trying to save the various pieces of equipment from their wrath. 

For the rest of the school, one question kept popping up since it had been brought up:

Who's going to be the mother and who'll be the father of the house? 

-To be continued-

A/N: 

1. To all who reviewed, thank you very much! ^___^

2. To rhygell who clarified stuff about the room and classes, thank you very much!

3. To those who those waved the RuHana/HanaRu banner, ^______^;


	5. Chapter 4: The Aftermath

Playing House Chapter 4: The Aftermath 

A/N: Incredibly long speeches, pointless rants, and foul language ahead. You have been warned.

_--Tuesday, 7:30 a.m., Principal's office--_

"Ms. Tanada, thank you for coming this early," Shohoku's principal, Mr. Sato, said as he gestured his newest faculty to sit. "I invited you here to talk about your Social Studies classes, specifically the ones your so-called house-playing project are being tested on." 

Ms. Tanada nodded.

"Several parents have called me about it," Mr. Sato shook his head.

"No—no way!" Ms. Tanada interrupted, frowning, "You—you're not canceling the project are you?!"

"Well you see Ms. Tanada—"

"You can't cancel the project just because there are several teams who are of the same sex!" the new teacher said, her voice becoming shrill and her head beginning to swell. "Yes, I know that some parents would find this inappropriate but that is not the main point of the program! 

"Ms. Tanada if you would just listen—"

Ms. Tanada, however, had quickly reached the peak of her hysteria. "This is real life we're talking about here Mr. Sato. This is the life our students will encounter as soon as they leave our institution. We have such little time to teach them all about it! We must use all our resources to prepare them for what is out there. Our students are not small babies who need cuddling. These are the gangsters who roam the city because they have no one to guide them. These are the teenagers who engage in pre-marital sex because they don't know the consequences of their acts. These are the people who spend so much money shopping for frivolous things because they do not see how hard it is to earn a living."

Fire seemed to come out of her eyes.

"These—these are the future leaders of our land and what do we teach them? To ignore what is right before their eyes. To become cowards who will go back to mommy or daddy when they are hurt. To hide behind other people and let others make decisions for them. To ostracize other people just because they are different. Do you not see, Mr. Sato, the magnitude of our work? We mold these students. We can shape them so that they can try to create a better society. Our legacy will only be seen in what our students will become after they leave our school. If we don't take the initiative to truly teach them then we would have failed in our profession. All our work would be for nothing! If that happens then we are nothing!"

Ms. Tanada shook her fist and a big wave crashed behind her, showering her with water droplets. A halo formed above her head. 

"Help me help them Mr. Sato," she pleaded. "Help _me_. Help _them_."

There was silence until she was brought back to reality with the clapping of several hands. It was only then that she realized that they had gathered an audience at the doorway. One staff member was holding a piece of round yellow cardboard above her head while another was brandishing a picture of a wave behind her.

Mr. Sato sighed.

"Are you quite through Ms. Tanada?" he asked.

Ms. Tanada realized that she had just given the school principal a very long lecture on teaching, a subject he would be an expert on.

"Eh-he-he," she pushed the audience out, closed the door of the office, and sat down again. "Yes, uhm, sorry about that."

"Oh-ho-ho!" Mr. Sato laughed amiably. "Quite all right. I am glad that you have such enthusiasm for teaching. Few teachers have that nowadays. Regarding the project, no I am not canceling it from the curriculum."

Ms. Tanada clapped her hands in glee.

"I believe that it is truly a good program that will teach our students a lot of things," Mr. Sato continued. "However, I would like to consider some of the concerns of the parents. They feel that this endeavor may promote homosexuality since the partners would have to work together as if, as you said, 'newly married couples.'"

"Well…"

"Might I suggest that you focus more on the equal responsibilities that such a partnership entail rather than on the sexual implications of the words 'playing house' when you talk to your students?" Mr. Sato folded his hands together on his desk. "That is the whole point of this task is it not? To make them aware of the immense work that people have to do to function well in society?"

Ms. Tanada nodded fervently. Her project would not be cancelled! 

"Besides," the principal continued, "I think this would be a good opportunity for Mr. Rukawa and Mr. Sakuragi, who seem to have generated much of the talk going around in the school, to try to work better together. Who knows? This new partnership may carry on to their basketball skills and Shohoku may be able to finally bring in the trophy this summer!"

Mr. Sato laughed again. Ms. Tanada joined him. 

The light from the windows of the room enveloped the principal and he seemed to glow in an ethereal light. Angels sang hallelujahs in the small room. The room's door was once again flung open and their audience cheered.

_--Tuesday, 8:10 a.m., Shohoku grounds—_

Shohoku students were treated to a different kind of spectacle at the school entrance.

"Ru-ka-wa," Hanamichi gritted between clenched teeth as he glared at his nemesis.

Rukawa returned the glare in full force.

"Bastard!" Hanamichi spat out. "You are not going ruin my year!"

"Hmp!"

"I'm gonna go to the newbie teacher's room and ask to have a new partner!"

"Like you can do that idiot," Kaede taunted.

"What?!" Hanamichi grabbed Kaede's shirt.

"All of our classmates have partners already and I don't think anyone would give up their current partner for you," Kaede pointed out.

This stopped the redhead enough to let go of the brunette's shirt. His eyes blinked with worry until they lay on his best friend who immediately backed away. He ignored the panic look on Youhei's face and laughed.

"Maybe no one will want you but I'm sure my best _friend_ would do it for me!"

Kaede glared at Youhei, who took another step back.

"Since you don't have any _friends_," Hanamichi continued, ignoring the scowling brunettes, "I'm sure the newbie teacher will just ask you to work alone like you always do! Nya-ha-ha-ha!"

Kaede hmped then proceeded to their classroom angering the other boy even more.

"Oi you! This genius is not finished talking to you yet! Get back here!"

"Hanamichi I ain't giving up my partner!"

The redhead spun around to face his friend.

"What?! But Youhei!"

"No! You can head-butt me but I'm not switching partners! I like my present condition thank you very much!"

Youhei walked on, stubbornly shaking his head to Hanamichi's entreaties and threats.

"Besides," he thought as they reached their classroom, "I can't ignore this gut feeling that Hanamichi and Rukawa would really be great…if they just manage to work together!"

_--Tuesday, 8:30 a.m., Shohoku grounds--_

True to his words, Hanamichi stalked out of his classroom during Study Hall and searched for Ms. Tanada. He found her in the faculty room tidying her table before her first class.

"Oi, newbie teacher!" he bellowed. "You will change my name with Haruko's partner so that I will not have to work with that fox-face!" he demanded, glaring down at her.

All faculty members stared at the new teacher who sat still, glaring up at the terror student.

"No. I can't do that," she carefully answered. "If I changed one team then that would not be fair for the others. You will just have to try your best with the current set-up."

There was a collective gasp at her brave words.

"Shit! Why you—" Hanamichi loomed menacingly above her.

Ms. Tanada's patience snapped and Hanamichi was treated with the Terrible Gigantic Head of Doom so early in the morning.

"YOU WILL WORK TOGETHER WITH MR. RUKAWA AND THAT IS THAT! YOU HEAR? I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY MORE WHININGS FROM YOU, YOU PUNK!"

Her head went back to normal.

"Besides," she smirked, "are you afraid that Mr. Rukawa will show everyone that he's the better of the two of you in this team? Is that why you want to change partners?"

Another audible collective gasp was heard.

"What!" Hanamichi shouted. "That fox better than me?! No way! I'll show you! This genius can take on anyone! All right I will agree to this partnership and I will prove to you that I am better than that fox!"

Hanamichi stomped out of the room. 

The other faculty members of Shohoku learned that day how such a diminutive teacher had been able to handle Class 2-3. She had the guts plus the brains to get students to work with her. Their next question was, how long would she be able to handle the chaos, especially from the two giant terrors?

-TBC-

A/N: 

1. Again, thank you to all who reviewed! ^___^

2. Just a bit of reality check during the first scene. The funny parts may be distracting though. I just had to add them, the scene was getting too dramatic for my taste.

3. I believe that somehow Shohoku's principal would have some redeeming quality or another. Anzai-sensei, a very famous coach, would not have decided to work for the school if he didn't like the head, ne?

4. I had to get some external problems solved first. Yosh, next up the first assignment for the project. Will Hanamichi and Rukawa actually manage to get this one done without killing each other?


	6. Chapter 5: The Budget

Playing House Chapter 5: The Budget 

A/N: Reeeeeally long delay, sorrrriiiieeee.

Having successfully yelled his piece to his obnoxious newbie teacher, Hanamichi stomped back to his classroom and went straight for his snoozing nemesis.

"Fox!" he boomed.

The other boy twitched but slept on.

"Rukawa!" Hanamichi's loud voice bowled over several bystanders. He hauled the other boy up by the collar and screamed, "Oi, you listen to me fox-face. We will do this stupid project together and this genius is going to prove to you that he can beat you in anything, even in cooperating—!"

Hanamichi stopped and cocked his head to the side. Somehow that last part did not sound right. He caught sight of Yohei's amused face and decided to just ask his friend later. He dropped Kaede and huffed back to his seat just as the teacher came in. 

The rest of the class scrambled to their seats so it was only Youhei who saw bright blue orbs peeking out from lidded eyes. Youhei's eyes shifted to his best friend and he saw Hanamichi wearing a smug look.

A look the redhead wore all the way to their Social Studies class the next day.

"Good day class!" Ms. Tanada greeted.

Hanamichi smirked. He had forgotten to ask Youhei what was weird about his sentence the previous day but that didn't matter. He was ready for whatever the newbie would give out.

"Okay, today I'll be giving you your first assignment for your project," Ms. Tanada said with a smile. 

Hanamichi snickered.

"Let's play house," she cleared her throat. "You are all working and earning around ¥300,000.00 every month."

Several protests erupted.

"What?! Only ¥300,000.00!"

"Why is it so low?"

"My monthly allowance is more than that!"

Ms. Tanada let the voices die down before speaking again.

"I told you, I've researched this too. That amount is what two average young working people would approximately make each month. Yes folks, people earn that little today. So, what you will be doing is making a budget with this amount. I want you to think what item should be in your budget and what percent that item should have. For example, food might be 40%. House rent might be 30%. It's all up to you. You must, however, be able to justify why you chose to budget each item that way. You have about two weeks to do this. Ask around. Interview your parents. It's easy," her gaze roamed and settled on Hanamichi, "if you can handle it."

Hanamichi met her eyes squarely. He harrumphed. Her challenge was easy for a genius. He transferred his sneer to Kaede and almost fell from his seat. The boy was sleeping. 

His partner slept and ignored Hanamichi for the rest of the day—and the rest of the week except for those occasional bouts of fistfights in between practices and during breaks. 

This was quite all right with the redhead. He was a genius. He would work on the homework when he felt like it and not before.

Hanamichi held on to this conviction until the afternoon Haruko reminded him of the deadline, which was the following day. He screamed and actually left his crush to look for his partner. Said partner was about to ride his bike and go home because practice had been cancelled that day.

"Rukawa! Wait! The deadline—the deadline for the homework is tomorrow. We have to do that budget by tonight! Are you listening to me foxy? We have to—" Hanamichi gulped. "We have to work together…tonight."

Kaede had been half-asleep when Hanamichi yelled at him. He was fully awake by the time the redhead had finished ranting. Unknown to most, he had also approached Ms. Tanada on the possibility of a change in partner. Anyone was preferable to the idiot who talked about himself in the third person. His teacher, unfortunately, had been as laconic as he was.

_"No. Fail this and no more basketball for you."_

Those had been her exact words. Threatened like that, Kaede was willing to go ahead with the stupid project. Shaking his head and returning to the present, the raven-haired boy pushed his bicycle back to the bike rack and walked away.

"Oi, kitsune, where the hell are you going? Didn't you hear me?" Hanamichi bellowed. "I said—"

"I heard you, idiot," Kaede growled. "I just don't want to do this assignment right here. I prefer to sit down somewhere."

Hanamichi's mouth opened to protest at being called an idiot but Kaede just walked away. The redhead was left to scream incoherently and follow. The dark-haired boy ambled towards the trees behind the school and sat down under a shaded area. He took out his notebook and was a bit surprised that he had actually written some notes on it. All of them were from Ms. Tanada's class. He had mastered yet another sleep-something activity—sleep writing!

Hanamichi plopped down beside him and also took out a notebook. An unusual silence pervaded between them. The fact that they had to _work together_ finally hit them both.

Argh! I actually have to cooperate with this stony-faced amateur sly fox! Idiot. Why him?! Someone out there hates me. 

Grumbling, Hanamichi finally opened his pad and wrote down the amount they were going to budget.

"C'mon you fox!" he said. "Let's just get this over with so this genius doesn't have to stay in your polluted company much longer. So we have to budget this thing…"

"Food should be 75% with your appetite," Kaede said.

"Yeah…wait a minute! Are you insulting me you stupid fox?! Are you implying that the genius eats a lot?!"

"You said it," Kaede shrugged and wrote down the item on his notebook. "I didn't."

"Why you—" 

Hanamichi attacked.

After several minutes and some torn paper and bruised faces later, the two settled down.

"Hmp! I knew that working with you would be a waste of time!" Hanamichi grumbled.

"Like I asked to be partnered with you, idiot," Kaede retorted.

They glared at each other. 

"Yeah well, if I eat a lot then we have to put 50% of the money for your bike repairs because you always destroy it! There! Nya!"

"Idiot. That would be more than 100%. How did you manage to graduate grade school if you can't even add?"

Hanamichi pounced and they started round 2 of that session's fight. After several more fighting bouts, they realized that their surroundings had become dark.

"Argh! Now look what you've done," Hanamichi yelled. "It's already dark and we haven't done anything yet! Now we have to go somewhere else to finish this."

"I didn't do anything," Kaede replied angrily. "You were the one who punched me first. And I will never invite you to my house."

"After you insulted me first! Anyway, who said I wanted to go to your house!"

"Please, like insulting you would be possible. I also have no intention of going to _your_ house!"

"Damn you—like I'd invite you there!"

The two were about to do another round when a new voice interrupted them.

"Hey you two, what're you doing here?"

The two squinted at the dark and saw Youhei walk towards them.

"Youhei!"

Hanamichi leapt to his feet.

"Let me guess, cramming for that assignment for Social Studies?"

"How did you know?" Hanamichi asked.

Youhei shrugged.

"With you two, it was an easy guess. So I take it you haven't even started yet?"

"We have! We would be finished if this stupid fox would just stop being so stupid!"

"I should be saying that," Rukawa uttered. "Stupid," he added for emphasis.

"Whatever," Youhei said. "I'll leave you two alone. I'm going to my partner's house now to check on the graph and the written report she's supposed to be printing out."

"Encoded?" Hanamichi asked.

"Printing?" Kaede echoed.

"Yeah. Boy, I'm glad I got a partner who's good with computers."

"Computer?" Hanamichi and Kaede asked in unison.

Youhei looked from one boy to the other.

"Yeah…computer. Wait, wait," he held out his hands. "Don't tell me that you didn't know that we have to submit a printed report for this?"

The two looked at him blankly. He slapped his forehead and grunted.

"You didn't know."

"I thought we were just going to—" Hanamichi started.

"Write it on a piece of paper," Kaede concluded.

They briefly frowned at each other before looking back at Youhei.

"You can do that for a seat work but this is a written report. Students don't submit handwritten reports anymore. They all submit printed copies now."

An idea hit Youhei with enough force to make him wince.

"Let's backtrack a bit…you have no idea what a computer is, do you?"

A sheepish shake of a red head and a glare from blue eyes answered his question. Youhei groaned.

"Wait! The genius has an idea!" Hanamichi suddenly said.

His companions shuddered. They both knew his ideas usually meant trouble or something stupid, more often both.

"You said that your partner is good with this camputah thing—"

"It's com-pu-ter, Hanamichi."

"Whatever. What was I going to say…oh yeah! Since she's good with things like that and you two are finished already, then you will let the genius copy your work and print…that's the word right? Print? Yes, print it!"

Hanamichi laughed at his brilliant idea.

"Nothing doing," Youhei said.

Hanamichi abruptly stopped laughing.

"What?!"

"I said I won't let her do that," Youhei answered.

"But—but Youheeeeiii!"

"No Hanamichi. I won't let Seishirou cheat for you two."

Hanamichi looked at Kaede and pulled Youhei away.

"Okay, okay. I know you don't want to help the fox but we can just say to the newbie teacher that he slept all the time that we—no—_I_ worked. That way she will see that I'm really a genius. Nya-ha-ha!"

"No. N-O. No."

"You-hei…"

"Ha-na-mi-chi…"

The two friends glared at each other.

"I heard all that you said stupid," Kaede interrupted them. He faced Youhei. "Even though I hate to admit it, the idiot has a point."

The two stared at Kaede like he had grown three heads. They saw him visibly steer himself for something he didn't like, open his mouth, and hold it like that for a few seconds. Hanamichi immediately laughed at his comic face while his friend's face twitched. Kaede glared at them both. Youhei just smiled.

"You need help, is that what you're saying?" he asked.

Kaede nodded.

"Oi, Hanamichi stop laughing already," Youhei whacked his friend. "I suppose we can help…"

Hanamichi stopped laughing and whooped.

"But I'm going to ask her to just show you how the computer works. She won't show you what we've done for the project and you won't ask her for a copy or else…agreed?" Youhei glared particularly at Hanamichi.

The taller boy just ignored his look and dragged his arm.

"Yeah, yeah, so show us the way already so we can finish this before morning!"

Youhei sweatdropped while Kaede trailed behind them.

They reached the Seishirou residence after a few minutes. Youhei fretted until Mina Seishirou opened the door. He immediately stepped forward and explained everything. Fortunately for all, Mina smiled shyly and led them to the living room where the computer was. 

Once inside, Hanamichi's exuberance threatened to overwhelm her into mute terror and Kaede's coldness threatened her, period. 

Youhei's earlier threats, however, must have worked because the two managed to stay civil with each other and act less violently while she delivered her lecture. 

Strangely enough, Hanamichi took to computers like he did to basketball. He absorbed Mina's instructions and went right on tapping, maybe not like a pro but at least like a madman let loose on a new toy.

"Oi, Mina maybe we can work on your computer whenever we have homeworks. After all, I don't have a computer and I don't think the fox—" Hanamichi glanced at a napping Kaede, "the fox doesn't have any. He didn't even know what a computer was. Nya-ha-ha!"

"You didn't know it either, Hanamichi," Youhei said. "And I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Yo-Youhei! I wasn't asking you! I was asking her!"

Hanamichi turned his gangster charm on. "Right Mina?"

"Uhm…uh…" Mina squeaked. "I—I suppose it would be okay to let you use it. We-we, uhm, we might be able to get ideas from each other…"

"Yay! Thanks Mina!"

"Oi, oi," Youhei protested but Hanamichi was already on to another, more dangerous task: trying to wake up Kaede. He was using a ruler to poke the other boy. Youhei couldn't help but laugh at the sight. After several misses and gasps of suspense, Kaede managed to join the waking world again. He and his partner then went on to argue the night away.

I want a bigger bed than yours! 

_Idiot, can't you even add one plus one?_

Youhei looked at Mina.

"Still think it's a good idea to let them work here?"

"Uhm…"

_You're putting that much for band-aids?!_

-TBC-

A/N: 

1. Again, sorry for the long delay! ^___^

2. I think of Hanamichi as a very good case of tabularasa. He has little information in his head therefore any new data inputted in are absorbed quite easily, especially when he's really focused. Anyway, on to the interlude. Hope you all like it. 


	7. Interlude: A Short Story by Hanamichi an...

Playing House Interlude: A Short Story by Hanamichi and Kaede 

A/N: Warning: major POV shifts up ahead. Please take pain reliever should you develop a headache. Words in parentheses are supposed to be deleted words. Strikethroughs aren't recognized by the explorer.

Mr. Kiyo, Shohoku English teacher, chuckled and put down the paper he had finished reading. Who would have thought that tough Mito would be able to write a love story? Love at first sight indeed!

He stretched out a bit and noticed that he was alone in the faculty room.

"Everyone must have gone home," he murmured.

He shrugged then picked up the next paper on the pile and saw in bold letters the name Sakuragi, Hanamichi. His scanned the work and his lips quirked with amusement at the colorful words the boy had used. Out of curiosity, he shifted through the pile and took out the one marked Rukawa, Kaede. Scanning the composition, his eyes widened. His mind sped back to the class he had finished just a few minutes ago.

— 0 —

"Good afternoon everyone," Mr. Kiyo said. "Today I have a little seatwork for you that's related to the little project for your Social Studies class. I had a little chat with Ms. Tanada yesterday and she told me all about it. I was intrigued about it so today we will be doing a little exercise on writing that's slightly connected to that project."

He heard a few groans and smiled.

"Don't worry, it won't be hard. It will probably be the easiest writing exercise that you will do for this class for the whole year."

The protests became louder. Ignoring the voices, he stood up and paced to the front of his table.

"I want you to write, in English, a fictional account of how you and your partner actually became…what was Ms. Tanada's words…oh yeah, housemates! I know this is supposed to be a pretend type of situation, so pretend. Let your imaginations run wild and tell me how it all happened. Don't worry about writing a story different from that of your partner's. I want to know how _you_ think everything started out. Submit your work at the end of the class. You may start."

As he went back to his seat, Mr. Kiyo noticed the trouble-duo glaring at each other. He sighed, expecting mediocre papers from those two again.

— 0 —

Mr. Kiyo focused back to the two papers in his hands. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that Sakuragi and Rukawa had copied each other's works and placed in different words so that they wouldn't be accused of blatant copying. Even the words they had erased seemed similar. That was impossible though. The two were well known rivals …

— 0 —

It all started, wrote Sakuragi, when I met the love of my life who said that she loved somebody else. I swore I would kill that person named Rukawa. Then one day I met this guy (in the rooftop) in a building and our eyes clashed. **The world shifted**, wrote Rukawa,** (as if time had stopped) probably because I was meeting a very stupid person. It lasted until the idiot redhead heard my name. Then he suddenly attacked me. I later learned that it was about some stupid girl who had a crush on me.******

This genius set out to prove to Haruko that I am better than that Rukawa bastard. I joined the basketball team and mastered the game easily.

At first he kept fouling out of games. He was persistent though. He had become serious about the game even at an early stage.

There were hard times, especially during the first few games. However, whenever I saw the fox, my resolve to beat him became stronger. I even told him that one night while he was practicing by himself. Hmp! That fox, always alone! He couldn't even play like a team. He thought he could play basketball all by himself.

**Until the first time we played against Shoyo.**

That was when everyone realized that this genius was truly talented. Even that bastard Rukawa said that it was a pity that I got kicked out of the game after I made that spectacular slam dunk.

**His talkativeness started rubbing off of me. I started talking more.**

I started paying more attention to his moves—so that I could learn how to surpass him, of course! I became better.

**(In a way I started trusting him, as much as I could trust a stupid teammate.) ****I passed the ball to him during the Sannoh match. He would've been a really big idiot not to have made that shot…even though his back hurt at that time.**

So that stupid Rukawa finally realized that I was better than him. He even tried to salvage his reputation by making me envious when he became a part of the All Japan team. Ha! He only got in because I was injured. But when I got back, I proved to everyone that no injury would put me down.

**He became more annoying when he came back.**

****

I then led the whole team to the National finals even when I was in College. I got a slot at the All Japan team and became a regular member after College. The fates were against me though. The genius was on his way to becoming a famous basketball player already when he got a new coach for the team. This new coach was small and not deserving of the position. On the first day (she) he gave us a terrible announcement. We would have to room in with a teammate so that we would have better bonding or something.

"What?!" I yelled. "Damn you! No way! What would Haruko think of such an arrangement?"

**I protested too.**

**"No," I said. **

**I liked my privacy thank you very much.**

But the coach was a sadist worse than gori.

"You are all doing this because I say so," (she) he said.

Then (she) he wrote the names of all my teammates and I actually got paired up with Rukawa!

"Noooo!" I said. " I won't live with that damn fox! He'll just sleep all day and not do anything at home!"

**"You're the one who'll be too lazy to do anything, idiot." **

"Damn you, Rukawa!"

"Both of you shut up!" the coach yelled then bashed only my head not Rukawa's. "You are both doing this! Or are you scared, Hanamichi Sakuragi?"

"What?! Me? Scared? Ha! In your dreams you newbie (teach) coach! I shall prove to you that I can do whatever you throw against me. I am a genius after all," I declared.

**Idiot.**

**"As for you Rukawa," the coach turned to me, "do this or no more basketball for you."**

**Damn (her) him.**

And that is how the fox and the genius became housemates.

**It's pure hell.**

The fox keeps drooling all over the furniture. He falls asleep doing the laundry. He keeps crashing his bike at the front door. He keeps calling me an idiot when everybody knows he's the stupid one!

__**The idiot keeps forgetting to buy groceries and he's the one who eats up everything inside the house!**

**_This is entirely that stupid coach's fault!_**

— 0 —

Mr. Kiyo shook his head and chuckled. He guessed that the two had based their story on real events involving Ms. Tanada's class. He had to hand it to them for accomplishing such a feat.

"The wonders that they could do if they just focused their minds more," he murmured to the empty room. "They might actually pass their exams if they did that."

He glanced at the two names and decided to give them both moderately high grades, just this once. They had turned up a good combined report.

As he wrote the grades down, he was struck with the thought that if those two could unintentionally produce a good piece together, what wonders could they do when they actually _worked together._

"Ms. Tanada's project might yield something much more than anyone expected," he mused, "especially for those two."

-TBC-

A/N:

1. Again, sorry for the long delay!

2. Hope the short story wasn't confusing.

3. Please do review!


	8. Chapter 6: The House Hunt

Playing House Chapter 6: The House Hunt 

A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Bored beyond description, Hanamichi glared at "the fox" as his mind recalled their previous Social Studies class.

— 0 —

"Good morning everyone!" Ms. Tanada greeted. "I've finished reading and grading your first reports. I have to congratulate you all for making…er…such innovative budgets…" her voice trailed as she remembered just how "innovative" some of the reports had been.

She shook her head and smiled. "Anyway, your second report will be about your house."

"House?!" the whole class chorused.

"Yes, your house. You can't live in the streets right?"

A few students laughed at her joke.

"So, what you have to do is scout around for a place that you think will meet your requirements."

Someone raised her hand.

"Teacher, when you say requirements, what exactly do you mean?" she asked.

"An excellent question. What I mean is the rental or payment for the house or apartment or whatever you decide should be within your budget. You must remember that you supposedly work somewhere in Kanagawa so you have to think of the distance too. Finally, you and your partner must like the place. It should be a mutual decision because you will supposedly be living there. Remember that there are two of you, so every decision must be done in a democratic way. Is everything clear?"

She looked around and when no one raised a hand, she continued with her explanations.

"For this report I want you to survey at least three places and write a description of what you choose plus a short reflection of why you chose that particular abode. Any questions?"

A few students raised some queries then the class went on with the lesson for the day. 

Being the last subject for the day, the rest of the class hurried off for clubs when it ended. Hanamichi and Youhei were some of the last to leave. They were headed in the direction of the gym for basketball practice when Kaede stopped them by the door.

"Idiot."

Hanamichi reacted violently as usual.

"What did you say you freaky fox?"

Kaede ignored his rhetoric question.

"Meet me at the school gates on Sunday, 8:00 am. You can come too, Mito," he merely said then proceeded to the gym.

"Hey, wait a minute Rukawa! Why the heck are you ordering us around? Who do you think you are? Why would the genius have to wake up so early on a Sunday?" Hanamichi hollered as grabbed the other boy's arm to prevent him from leaving.

Kaede rolled his eyes and shrugged Hanamichi's hand off. 

"I don't want to rush anymore. We have to go out for this. I know a real state agent," he explained briefly, as only he could.

Youhei grinned at him.

"Hey, thanks!" he said, interrupting his already-about-to-erupt friend. "I'll go look for Mina and ask if she can come too. She _can_ come right?"

Kaede nodded. He had been told about Mina agreeing to let them use her computer for the rest of the year. It was only fair to return the favor. He knew Youhei and Mina got the bad end of the deal anyway.

"Thanks again," Youhei said as he sprinted away. "Later Hanamichi!"

— 0 —

So here they were, cooped up in a small room in a real estate building and all bored out of their minds. Well Hanamichi was. Youhei and Mina were talking softly in one corner while Kaede was sleeping on the sofa he shared with the redhead. Hanamichi was about to launch another round of tirade just to break the monotony when the door opened and two women entered.

"Good afternoon," the taller one said. "Sorry to keep you—"

"How dare you make the genius wait? Don't you know that my time is precious? I could be with Haruko right now having a date!"

"Hn. Shut up stupid," Kaede's voice stopped him.

Hanamichi redirected his rants to his partner.

"Rukawa! How dare you call me stupid, you stupid! I didn't want to come here at all! We would have been able to look at houses through the papers!"

"This is easier. Now shut up."

Hanamichi was about to protest when he was cut short, this time by the shorter of the two women.

"Uhm, maybe I will just take the two of you to another room," she said to Youhei and Mina. "Right this way please. I will be your personal agent while Ms. Ikkyo will take care of Mr. Rukawa and his, er, companion."

Youhei readily stood up and dragged Mina with him to the door and out of the Hanamichi's hostile presence.

"See ya Hanamichi!" he called out before shutting the door.

Said Ms. Ikkyo glared at her co-worker for abandoning her before thinking of the promised commission that she might get from the rumored extremely rich Mr. Rukawa. She glanced at Kaede who was already snoozing. The description of their boss had not given him credit at all. The boy was a hunk. If only he was a few years older…

The agent sighed and shook her head. No use daydreaming. She had a job to do. She sat down and immediately regretted the act. The redhead looked even more menacing from her new vantage point.

"Er…so—uh," Ms. Ikkyo silently cursed. She had always been proud of being glib.

Hanamichi looked at her weirdly then shrugged.

"The fox said you're going to show us some houses—"

"Not houses," a nasal voice contradicted. "Apartments."

The two turned to look at a now wide-awake Kaede.

"What did you say fox?" Hanamichi asked, sitting down beside him

Kaede rolled his eyes but complied in repeating his statement.

"Not. Houses. Apartments."

"But I want a house! Houses are better!"

"Stupid. We'll be bankrupt if we get a house. Besides we don't need much space."

"But I like houses!"

"We can't afford them!"

"Uhm…if I may interrupt," the agent cautiously said. "This place that you're looking for will be for the two of you?"

"Yes," Hanamichi waved his hand irritably. "Me and the fox are supposed to live in it."

Ms. Ikkyo's mouth hung open. No one had told her that she would be selling a unit to…a couple like this! She shook her head. No! They weren't. Were they? She dazedly looked on as the two continued their argument. She only came to her senses when they resorted to a fistfight and she almost got hit. She scooted to a corner and stayed under until they finished.

After a few minutes and several bruises later, the two finally agreed to look at some apartments and some houses too. Hanamichi looked smug. He would prove to the fox that houses were much better than apartments.

"Now that you two have agreed on something," Ms. Ikkyo began. "We can look at some of the brochures and maybe discuss your budget—"

"Enough of this!" Hanamichi boomed. "We came here to see houses not talk. So get up and show us what you have. Now!"

Ms. Ikkyo shot from her seat and ushered them to a waiting vehicle outside the building.

Hanamichi's bravado lasted all the way to their first stop. Once there, however, he suddenly felt nervous. The house was big and situated in a posh neighborhood. It had a blend of Western and Eastern elegance with state of the art facilities just like every other house down the street. What made Hanamichi edgy was the feeling that several pairs of eyes were trained on him as they looked around. He caught glimpses of faces through half-drawn curtains and became spooked.

"I don't like this house. Let's go!" he said, stomping back quickly to the car.

Their next stop was a pad at the top floor of a condominium. Hanamichi was impressed but tried hard not to show it. The place even had a balcony that he really liked. Kaede, on the other hand, almost fell from it while leaning on the rail and falling asleep standing up. Site 2 was rejected due to hazardous elements.

The next place they saw was another condominium unit, this time situated at the second floor of the building. There were only four doors in each floor and the units were quite spacious. They rejected it, however, due to the weird noises coming from the other doors at that floor. From one unit came the howling of mad cats, from another was some chanting, and from the last one they heard some thumps and screams of "More! More!" that almost caused the redhead to nosebleed. All these they heard while looking around _inside_ the pad.

Their next stop would have been a bungalow but they whizzed past it. They had seen two of their classmates outside of the structure.

The next house was perfect. Hanamichi fell in love with the simple structure of the two-story abode. He could almost see himself really living in it.

"I want this place fox…" Hanamichi said with a small smile.

Kaede looked at him weirdly for a while before shaking his head and asking the agent for the price of the place.

"We can't afford it, moron," he answered with a hint of regret after hearing the monthly amortization.

"But—but!"

"No," he firmly said. "We'll look on."

Kaede turned and left. Hanamichi looked around one last time before slumping his shoulder and leaving as well. Ms. Ikkyo looked at the dejected boy, almost pitying him. Almost. He was ranting—very loudly—when she reached the car.

They went on to an apartment near the train station. It was small compared to the others.

"Since space is really hard nowadays, some architects have discovered ways of maximizing space," Ms. Ikkyo explained. "The main feature of this unit is this."

She pressed a red button on the wall and the floor of the living room went up creating two stories in one portion of the apartment.

Needless to say, the two boys were impressed.

"Ooooh, we'll take this!" Hanamichi exclaimed.

"Idiot," Kaede muttered. "I thought you said you wanted a house."

"Stupid! We can't afford a house right now!" Hanamichi growled, unconsciously using Kaede's own words. "Hey lady how much is this supposed to be?"

Ms. Ikkyo quoted a price.

"Hmmm…how much did we put in for house in the budget fox?"

"Imbecile, you've already forgotten our budget?" Kaede shook his head, exasperatedly.

"Hey!" Hanamichi's face turned red from anger. "I was just wondering if you still remember it! Since you don't want to answer, you must have forgotten it!"

"I'm not stupid like you!"

Ms. Ikkyo sighed.

"There they go again," she thought.

After a while, when the two finally simmered down, she put on her best smile and asked, "So, will the two of you be renting this unit?"

The two gave her odd looks. Her smile faltered.

"Who said anything about renting?" Hanamichi finally asked. "We're just looking at these stupid places for a project. Now that we've found one we can go home."

Hanamichi turned and walked out of the apartment.

Ms. Ikkyo stared in shock as Kaede made a final sweeping glance at the unit before following his partner and leaving the agent to turn to stone. Apparently her superior had neglected to tell her that the rich Mr. Rukawa was only going to survey the units for a school project. Her stone self cracked as she saw her commission fly out of the window.

-TBC-

A/N: 

1. Aaah, the power of money and prestige! Can get you instant access to anything. Wish I had 'em both.

2. I know looking at houses and apartments don't take just one day and no real state agent would tour two young people just for a project, but I'm the almighty dragon-author who can do anything. Plus I can wield the almighty tool that is the plot hole. Bwa-ha-ha!


	9. Chapter 7: The Shopping Spree

Playing House Chapter 7: The Shopping Spree 

A/N: Thank you! Thank you for all the reviews!!! Oh and special thanks to foxhana for telling me about the error in chapter 4. Thankies!

"Take your seats kids!" Ms. Tanada beamed at her students. "First off I want to congratulate all of you for submitting such wonderful reports. You must have really gone to great lengths to do your researches. I hope you will continue to do so until your final report."

She clapped her hands like an overexcited child as some students hooted at her words.

"So, let me give you your next topic. This time I want you to scout around for the pieces of furniture the you want to put into your houses."

— 0 —

"Oi, Rukawa, hurry up!" Hanamichi hollered as he skipped towards the entrance of the central mall in Kanagawa, his backpack swinging perilously from his arm. He cheerfully looked around the complex like a child on his first outing and he immediately zoomed towards a nearby sweets shop.

Kaede sauntered after his partner and found him pressing his face on the large glass container while all the people inside stared at him like he was crazy (which of course he was—a little).

"Idiot, we're not here to eat," Kaede said coldly, although there was an unusual twitching vein on his lips.

Hanamichi unstuck his face from the glass.

"But we're going to walk a lot so I need to eat something!" he protested.

Kaede rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," he said before going out.

Hanamichi whooped, badgered the sales lady to give him a bag of candies for free, and walked out laughing his signature laugh. He found Kaede snoozing while leaning against a shop window. The redhead munched his snack as he contemplated how to wake the fox up. He settled on dangling a piece of candy in front of the other boy's nose. Kaede's nose twitched before his eyes opened and he glared at the laughing redhead.

A mini-fight ensued. Mini meaning they managed not to fully damage the area. After catching their breaths they went on to find a furniture shop. Since, Hanamichi rarely went there and Kaede only went to the sports shops, the two hunted down the mall directory first. They managed to tour the whole of the ground floor before finding the small, highly confusing map.

Hanamichi's eyes were already crisscrossing before Kaede had pity on him and pointed out the section where the stores selling furniture was.

"I knew where it was! I didn't need your help!" Hanamichi protested.

Kaede just grunted and went for the escalators, the redhead still shouting at him. He stepped on the escalator but didn't know that Hanamichi had not followed him. It was only when he realized that it had become relatively quiet that he looked back and found the redhead staring at the escalator steps and not moving an inch thereby blocking the way. Out of curiosity, Kaede walked back down the up escalator.

"Idiot, what are you staring at?" he asked once he reached the bottom.

Hanamichi glared at him.

"Don't bother me, I'm doing a very important experiment."

Kaede's brow curved up.

"What idiocy is this stupid guy doing again," he thought.

Curious but trying to hide it, Kaede stood beside Hanamichi. He was about to give Hanamichi a piece of his mind when someone behind them exclaimed, "What the heck is going on here!"

The voice was followed by other protests.

"Yeah, what's the hold up?"

"Hey, others need to use the escalator too!"

Kaede glared at them. Feeling a bit belligerent, he stood shoulder to shoulder with Hanamichi blocking the way even more. He inwardly smirked at the frustrated voices.

"Ho!" Hanamichi exclaimed. "Here it comes!"

Kaede looked at where the other boy was staring and saw a pink wad on one of the steps. He glanced at Hanamichi and saw the other boy nodding and checking his watch.

"Hn…so it takes about one minute for the whole thing to come back…yes! Another important piece of information has once again been added to the genius' mind," Hanamichi said sagely.

Kaede bopped Hanamichi's head as he stepped on the escalator.

"Moron."

"What did you say Rukawa?"

Hanamichi hurled curses at him and all the other people grumbled at them as the group finally managed to use the escalator. 

Kaede casually got off the top step but Hanamichi had been too busy cursing him. The redhead missed the last step, stumbled forward, and forced Kaede to also lose his balance. They grunted as they fell on the floor while the people behind them stumbled at their fallen bodies. It took a while for everyone to right themselves up, Hanamichi loudly grumbling all the way. 

The two then proceeded to the escalators leading to the third floor. Before they could reach it, though, they experienced one of the horrors of going to the mall—a stampede of fanatic girls. Apparently there was an autograph signing by a famous j-pop group. The two were caught and crushed underneath a lot of high-heeled shoes.

After the horrifying mob had passed and the twitching teens were able to get up, the two quickly rushed up to the third floor before anything more happened. Once there they took some minutes to catch their breaths and calm their hearts. 

"Those crazy girls…" Hanamichi wheezed.

It was proof of how terrifying the stampede had been that he didn't try to act tough and actually let Kaede see that he had been rattled. 

They went on to the nearest store afterwards.

Once inside, Kaede's eyes rested on the various beds. There they were. Comfortable, huge, made just for—

The boy never finished his thought as he curled up on one of the king size beds and instantly fell asleep.

Hanamichi ignored his partner and gaily walked around the shop completely ignoring the high-strung store personnel following him.

"Uhm…excuse me sir…sir…your friend is sleeping on one of our displays—"

Hanamichi whirled and glared at the girl.

"Who said he's my friend?" he hissed.

"We-we-well you two came to-toge-together," the girl stammered.

"That proves nothing," Hanamichi said loftily. 

He went around the shop, touching highly breakable objects and scaring the living hell out of all people inside. His eyes finally rested on a simple chair. Bending a little, he read the description. He immediately straightened and glared at the girl beside him.

"Oi, are you running some sort of scam here?" he hissed.

"N-n-no…?" the girl answered uncertainly.

"Then why does this say that this chair is made out of walnut? How can you make a large chair out of those small walnut shells, huh? Huh? Tell me?"

The girl meeped and ran away. The redhead was left alone to peer curiously at all the items. He would occasionally pull out a notebook from his backpack and jot something down.

Finally—to the relief of all inside—he walked up to his already-drooling partner.

"Oi, Rukawa, get up already!" he yelled. "We're done here."

Kaede grumbled and opened his eyes to see a store personnel hovering near where he lay. 

"Uh…sir, I'm afraid you'll have to pay for drooling on the pillow…uh sir…" the guy said.

His eyes narrowed as he stood up and he swung his fist at the unsuspecting guy. He then looked around to find Hanamichi strolling out to the next store. He shrugged and followed. No one dared to ask for payment or go after them.

They had the similar experiences at the other stores until they reached Hi-Class (So Classy You Won't Be Able to Afford our Items Unless You're a Billionaire) Furnitures. There they met the sales clerk from hell who glared at Hanamichi and flirted extensively with Kaede. She was miffed when the boy just sat on a couch and proceeded to sleep. She decided to vent her frustration on the redhead.

"You can't afford that even if you worked everyday of your life, _little boy_," she uttered.

Hanamichi whirled and faced her nose to nose.

"What did you say, you ugly pimply woman?!" he gritted out.

"Ugly? Why you bastard. Get out of my store! Out!" the woman screeched.

"Hmp! I'm going. You're store doesn't have anything that I would put in my apartment anyway," Hanamichi shouted back before dragging the still sleeping Kaede.

The raven-haired boy woke up to find a fuming redhead who was furiously licking an ice cream while mumbling curses.

"Where are we?" he asked as he straightened up on his chair.

"We're far away from that stupid woman!" Hanamichi answered.

Kaede stared at Hanamichi. The other boy seemed more upset than angry. 

"Thinks she's so hot working for a stupid expensive store. Hmp! Doesn't even care if people can't afford…always thinking rich people deserve special attention…"

Kaede shrugged and tried to get comfortable on the plastic chair.

"Wake me up when you're done with that," he said before closing his eyes.

"Oi! Oi! We're supposed to be doing this together y'know! You've done nothing but sleep in every store! Oi! Oi!

Kaede chose to ignore the voice and proceeded to sleep. He was roughly awakened a few minutes later.

"Hey, c'mon!" Hanamichi said poking Kaede's arm. "Let's get outta here. I don't think we'll be able to find anything more."

Kaede grunted and followed Hanamichi to the exit. They were walking towards the train station when Hanamichi suddenly stopped in front of a small store.

"Hey fox look! This store has a sale and they have some really cool stuff!"

"Idiot! We're not here to buy anything. We only need to look." Kaede said.

"You're the idiot! We have a budget remember? If we get sale stuff we'll be able to adjust our budget and maybe get a better grade. Right?"

Kaede stared at Hanamichi dumbfounded. He resisted the urge to say, "Who are you and what have you done to the real Hanamichi?" and just followed the redhead inside.

Once there he inwardly acknowledged Hanamichi's idea as a good one. The pieces of furniture inside where like the ones he had seen in the other stores but they seemed to have lower prices. He couldn't be sure since he really hadn't been paying attention. It was a quiet shop with only a few people inside too. Plus there wasn't any annoying store personnel hovering near them. It would have been an ideal shop if they had really been buying anything.

He looked for the redhead and found him bending over a drawer. Thinking that the other boy knew what he was doing, Kaede opted to settle down on the sofa behind him and get some shuteye. He really didn't care what went inside the apartment so long as they could be used.

He gasped slightly when he felt the sofa underneath him. He looked at it more closely. It was navy blue with three pillows. It didn't look any different from the ordinary sofas but it was soft and there was a homely feel to it that Kaede liked.

"Oi, Rukawa, I'm finished here," Hanamichi said as he suddenly appeared, looming over Kaede.

"I want this," Kaede said patting the furniture underneath him.

"What? Didn't you say that we weren't buying anything?" Hanamichi queried.

"I meant I want it for the house," Kaede clarified as he stood up.

"Eh? But we already have a sofa," Hanamichi said. "And why do you want this? It doesn't look like anything special."

Kaede shrugged. 

"I like it. It's—I like it," he answered.

"Can I help you young ones with anything?"

The two turned to find a small elderly lady smiling up at them.

"No, grandma," Hanamichi answered.

"We were just looking around—it's for our project," Kaede clarified.

Hanamichi frowned at the unusually soft tone of Kaede's voice. He also seemed to be smiling at the old lady. Well his lips were twitching upwards.

"Oh, well then I hope you find something useful in our shop. Just holler if you need anything."

The two nodded. The lady beamed at them before shuffling off to the counter.

Kaede looked at her retreating back then to the sofa then to Hanamichi.

"We're getting the sofa," he said before going out.

"Hey, how come you get to decide all of a sudden what to put in the apartment," Hanamichi yelled as he followed the other boy out. "I'm the one who's been working all day for this!"

"We're getting it," Kaede stubbornly replied.

The two bickered all the way back to their neighborhood.

"Okay! We're getting that damn sofa!" Hanamichi finally said when they were about to part ways. "But we're also getting that chair made from those little walnut shells!"

-TBC-

A/N: 

1. I have had an epiphany. Reviews are very important for writers. It's like food. ^___^

2. The first phase of Playing House is about to end and everything's getting to be more interesting, ne?

3. Thanks to Crescent Quetzalcoatl and frozenfemale who reviewed my fic, Mother and Child. I really appreciate your reviews.


	10. Chapter 8: The Grocery List

Playing House Chapter 8: The Grocery List 

Ms. Tanada almost sighed as she neared the impossible duo seated at the last row. One was half-sleep while the other was openly snoring. 

She managed a small smile as she reached out for the piece of paper from white fingers.

"Your partner seems to be extra tired today, hm…Rukawa?" she commented at the raven-haired boy.

"Hn," Kaede answered and proceeded to follow his partner's example.

"O~kay!" Ms. Tanada said loudly as she swiveled and walked to the front. The two boys immediately sat up. Hanamichi had dark circles under his eyes because he had stayed up all night typing their report.

"Your next assignment will be the last for the first phase of the project. You've almost made it through the first part. Now, all you have to do is make—your grocery list!"

— 0 —

"Since we're here, I'll do my grocery too," Kaede stated to his approaching partner. 

Being a Sunday, and their only free day, the two had agreed to meet at the local grocery and do their homework.

"You go your way and I go mine," Kaede added as Hanamichi stopped before him. "We'll both make our own lists and just compare later. Is that clear idiot? Good."

Kaede immediately turned around, grabbed a basket, and proceeded to a random aisle, closing his ears against his partner's screams.

"Rukawa you bastard! Who do you think you are!"

Hanamichi stopped after several minutes of futile yelling. The store guard had tried to hush him up but he only glared at the guy before huffing and turning away. He then fished out from his pocket a bunch of discount coupons he had cut out the previous day. His stomach rumbled.

"Hmmm…maybe I should have eaten something before I left," he muttered as he grabbed a basket. "Maybe one of these coupons can give me a free snack—ak!"

The boy had not been paying attention to where he was going and had slipped on a mop left by one store boy. Needless to say Hanamichi had to be pacified by half of the staff of the store before he stopped yelling. 

The poor boy was only consoled when he was given free samples of a new brand of cheese spread on some crackers. 

"FOOOODDDD!"

The redhead passed his hand across the tray containing the crackers and the next moment all the food was gone.

"Ah! Sir! Please! You can only take one—"

"More!"

Not one to argue with a six-foot tall scary guy with red hair, the girl and all those gathered around complied. However, after several more trays of crackers, Hanamichi began to choke.

"Oi—hak!—don't you have—ak!—free drinks—wak!"

"N-no sir! But there's a guy at the other end of the grocery that's giving out free samples of some juice—"

The girl found herself talking to a mushroom cloud. Hanamichi had bolted to the indicated stall. Several gulps later he was leisurely walking along the aisles leaving behind a very traumatized stall-keeper.

Meanwhile, in the middle of an aisle filled with parked grocery carts was Kaede—being mobbed by a horde of fangirls. It seemed that his groupie had managed to learn that he was inside the same building as them and had converged on the brunette star. Wild-eyed and actually showing some emotion on his face, the boy tried to free himself from the mob but the carts were giving him a hard time. 

"Chikuso!" he muttered.

"Kyaa! He cursed!"

"So cool!"

Becoming quite desperate and a little scared, Kaede jumped into a cart and kept hopping until he finally skidded to a stop at the end of the aisle. His fans tried to follow him but they were stuck in the middle of the parked carts.

"Rukawa!"

"Wait for us!" 

"We'll do your grocery shopping for you!"

Kaede didn't bother to even glance at them as he sprinted towards the farthest aisle from the screaming crowd. 

When he was sure he was safe, he began to finally began his shopping. He came across several chocolate syrups and his eyes lit up. He took a bottle and read the label. He went on to read the other labels afterwards.

Fifteen minutes later he was still reading the labels for the third time. He was a perfectionist in everything. He would buy nothing but the best chocolate syrup. After five more minutes, he finally made his choice and he moved on to a pile of canned soup.

Hanamichi found him staring at the pile ten minutes later. 

"Hey, Rukawa whatcha doin'?" the redhead asked, licking the free candy he had wheedled out of yet another store guy.

"Shut up stupid! I need to concentrate," Kaede hissed as he glared at the huge pyramid of cans.

Hanamichi leaned closer and looked from Kaede's face to the pile and back.

"What're you staring at that for? Why not just get this one," he said as he grabbed one can from the top.

Kaede glared at him then at the can.

"No, you moron. That has a dent," he said, pointing to a tiny dent at the top of the can.

"It's just a little dent!" the redhead argued.

Kaede stubbornly shook his head.

"No. Stupid. I want one that has no dent," he stated before bending in front of the pile. "I want this," he added as he pointed to a can right in the middle.

"But it's in the middle of the pile," Hanamichi said, pointing out the obvious.

"Hn. Just do your list , moron, and leave me alone."

"I can do that later. I wanna watch this."

Kaede ignored the other boy. He went on to poke "his" can, ever slowly managing to disengage it from the pile. He was so intent on what he was doing that he forgot about his partner. 

The maniacal giggling first alerted him that something was up. 

Then the can next to his choice began to move. Soon, the redhead had triumphantly removed one can, which he held out to Kaede.

A flame of competitiveness erupted in the other boy's eyes. He immediately pushed his can and smugly held it out to Hanamichi. The redhead retaliated by moving another can. The two then plunged into an intense game of Uno using canned soups as toy pieces. 

This led to an intense game of throw-the-grocery-item, which led to a storewide panic.

"Clean-up crew on aisle 15!"

"Clean up needed along aisle 10!"

"Help! Two maniacs are throwing kelp at each other near the vegetable stand!"

"One personnel needed at aisle 8. Somebody used the oranges as bowling bowls." 

It took several minutes for the store staff to find the culprits. By then they were easy to find since they were both covered in flour, vegetables, various sauces, and different confectioneries. Hanamichi was actually _eating_ some of the sweet stuff covering his hand.

"Oi, you two! Get your hands up and stop this nonsense!" a guard shouted at the two.

The man was immediately pushed aside by a group of Rukawa fans who magically appeared out of nowhere.

"Don't you dare throw our beloved Rukawa out!" 

"He wasn't doing anything."

"Throw this monkey out!"

"WHAAAATTT?" Hanamichi screeched, glaring at the group.

"You did this to him!"

"We'll never forgive you for making our Rukawa dirty!"

"Making him dirty?" Hanamichi saw red. "He was the one who started this! Oi Rukawa—huh? Rukawa?"

"Waah! Rukawa, where are you?"

"Where'd he go?"

Rukawa's fans panicked. It seemed that their god had used Hanamichi's diversion as a way to sneak pass the crowd. Quickly seeing an escape, Hanamichi used this moment to also make his getaway.

It was one of the guards who noticed that both culprits had disappeared.

"Huh? Hey, where did that red-haired guy go?" 

"Arg! We lost both of them!" another guard growled.

"Split up they can't be far."

The Rukawa fans also took this advice and went off in different aisles shouting their idol's name.

Meanwhile, Hanamichi saw Kaede just about to exit the store. He was going to call his partner when he saw a box near the entrance. He quickly approached it and found out that it was a _fukubiki_. He gleefully inserted a hand inside and drew out a golden ball. He immediately showed this to the grocery clerk standing nearby.

The clerk gulped, consulted a list of prizes, and gulped again.

"Nyahahaha! This genius has won a prize!" Hanamichi leaned closer to the clerk. "So what do I get?" 

"Con-congratulations sir…you just won ¥10,000.00 worth of free groceries."

"Nyahaha! Hey, Rukawa! The genius got a prize, which he will use right now! Nyahahaha!"

Rukawa stopped, turned, and went back inside.

"What the—hey, what're you doing back here Rukawa? I thought you were going home already."

"You made me lose my grocery and my list," Rukawa answered, snagging a new basket. "You owe me so I'm cashing in on your prize."

"WHAT? No way! I won't share my prize with you!"

"You have no choice, idiot!"

"Arg! Noooooo!"

_The last comment was uttered by a very harassed store manager._

-TBC-

A/N: 

1. And with this chapter ends the first phase of Playing House. Please tell me what you think of this part and do watch out for the next phase. 

2. Oh yeah, a _fukubiki_ is like a lottery box or drum. Your prize is determined by the color of the ball you get. Stores usually use this to attract customers. Anyone seen Card Captor Sakura the movie? That's how Sakura got her free trip to Hong Kong.

3. Last but certainly not least, thanks to those who have reviewed. You continue to inspire me to do better chapters. (Actually you also make me nervous because I keep thinking that my next chapter may not be as good ^___^;) But seriously, thank you for all your support!


	11. Phase Two: An Update Report

Playing House Phase 2: An Update Report 

Youhei smiled and nodded to his partner, Mina.

"Okay. Don't worry," he said, smiling, "everything will be fine. Leave all the talking to me!"

It was _the_ day. The whole class had been preparing for one week for this day. Everyone was excited about giving out their first oral report of the first phase of their "Playing House" Project. Ms. Tanada had given them free reign over how to go about their presentations.

Youhei and Mina were going to do a powerpoint presentation with Mina handling the technical side while Youhei did the actual reporting.

The bell rang and he stood up from the leaning position he had assumed over her table. He patted her shoulder and gave a final smile before heading for his seat. 

His smile evaporated immediately as he neared the last row and felt the tension from the two troublemakers seated there. His eyes traveled from his friend to Kaede and back. The two were obviously nervous about the upcoming class. Hanamichi had phoned Youhei the previous night and told him that they had opted to do the regular type of presentation using minimal visual aids. Actually Hanamichi had also wanted to do a digital presentation but he had not mastered the use of powerpoint just yet. Strangely enough, the two had managed to finish their presentations rather early, working even during their basketball breaks. Of course with all the teasing they had received, not much progress had been done during those times.

Youhei smirked at his friend who was practically shaking with nervousness, his brown eyes wide. On the other hand, Kaede was successfully imitating a marble statue. Youhei resisted the urge to pass his hand over the boy's face to see if he was still alive. They had been working on most of their previous report before but that didn't mean that they were already friends. Then again who knew that the Ice King could become nervous over a simple class presentation? Hanamichi was another matter though.

Youhei snapped his fingers in front of Hanamichi's face as he sat down. The other boy visibly started before glaring at his best friend.

"Shit! Youhei! Why'd you go and do that for?" Hanamichi growled.

Youhei shrugged unrepentantly.

"Just checking if you would jump a foot if I did that," he answered before giving out a cheeky grin.

"Fu—"

"Tsk, tsk," Youhei wagged a finger at his friend's face. "You must really be nervous if you're resorting to such profanities."

"Youhei…"

"Yes Hanamichi?" the boy smiled sweetly, knowing that he could get away with taunting his friend since the other boy was too wound up at the moment. He knew he would pay for this after class but he would worry about that later.

His fun was cut short when their teacher gaily entered the room.

"Good day class! So, ready with your reports?"

There were several groans in the midst of the cheers. Obviously some people were as nervous as the two flanking Youhei's seat.

"Okay!" Ms. Tanada said. "We'll go with the numbers you picked last week. I'll just sit over at the back and listen. Oh, by the way, if you have any questions for your classmates don't hesitate to interrupt them. I want this to a free-flowing discussion, okay?"

She waited for the students to nod before walking over to the back, dragging her chair with her.

"Hmm…Ms. Azami and Mr. Kasasagi please start."

— 0 —

The presentations went on. A couple did a small play pretending that they were really living under one roof. That got them several catcalls of kiss! kiss! Several pairs also did powerpoint presentations although Youhei noted smugly that his and Mina's were better prepared and had more effects than the others. Plus they had presented ahead so the others seemed more like cheap imitations.

Near the end of the class, the two most highly anticipated people were called in front.

Youhei had to shake his friend who had been daydreaming of presenting the next meeting and coming more prepared. He was already at the stage of his dream where Haruko was so blown over by his greatness that she asked if she could be his teammate instead.

"Hanamichi! You're up!"

"Huh?" Hanamichi looked around and cursed softly. Kaede was already walking to the front with their visual aids.

He quickly gathered his notes (which were actually just torn pages from his notebook) together, dropping some of them on the floor. It took him several more fumbling and one bump on the head when he hit it on his table, before he managed to gather everything together. He then woodenly walked up to the front and stared at his classmates as Kaede finished putting up the large pieces of paper on the board. He had placed them half folded, which had everyone's curiosity up. Well, everyone who could still think after seeing their idol in front of the class and actually awake.

Finished with his part, Kaede nudged Hanamichi to start. Their plan was for the redhead to do all the talking while the dark-haired boy would take care of the illustrations and whatnot.

Hanamichi cleared his throat, opened his mouth, and—squeaked. His face turned bright red.

"What the hell are you doing, you idiot?" Kaede hissed. "Can't you even do a simple report right?

"Hey! I'm just getting warmed up!" Hanamichi hissed back, getting some of his bravado back. He cleared his throat again, glanced at his notes, then began.

"Well, we're here to report about what the stupid fox—ouch!" Hanamichi yelped when he felt Kaede's shoe step on his. He glared at his partner who glowered back.

"Just do the damn thing, moron," Kaede muttered. "And skip the name calling!"

"Hmp! Then you better shut up!" Hanamichi said. He waited for Kaede to say something. He continued when it was evident that the other boy was not about to interrupt again.

"Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," he shot a glare at Kaede. Several of their classmates protested at his words but he ignored them. "We are here to report about all the stuff we've done for this thingy for this class. First we have the budget."

Kaede walked behind Hanamichi and unfolded a paper and revealed a graph of their budget.

"We placed a high percent for food 'cause everybody needs to eat. Especially to maintain this genius'…genius!" Hanamichi nodded sagely. "Also we placed—ah heck! You can read them so we'll go on to the next one—"

"Yes we can read them Mr. Sakuragi," Ms. Tanada interrupted. But I think we'd all like to know _why_ you put that kind of value for those items, hmm?"

Hanamichi and Kaede looked around and noted the glazed eyes of most of their classmates. Hanamichi opened his mouth to protest but Ms. Tanada beat him again.

"At least _I_ would like to know why," she said.

"Stupid, just tell her," Kaede warned. "She might flunk us if you don't."

Hanamichi frowned at him but complied with his suggestion.

"Okay. We put a big percent for housing 'cause the houses cost a lot. And then there's clothing and insurance and health 'cause the fox here always gets into accidents so we need lots of money for those stuff."

Kaede resisted the urge to bop Hanamichi's head.

"You're the one who always gets into fights and will probably eat up our budget for health and insurance budget!" he mumbled.

"Furniture is important and we gave about ¥11,526 for that. We made a lot of extra for the "Others" part for the bills and social obligations and what my mom always calls "contingencies" which I think means all those emergencies that happen sometimes. Transportation's not that much important 'cause we got a place near where we want to work so we just use our bikes. The fox can't drive a car anyway 'cause he'll just crash it."

"And you'll get speeding ticket everyday, moron," Kaede finally said out loud, getting into the report for the first time.

Several people squealed at finally hearing him talk. 

"Look what you've done! Now we'll never get this report done!" Hanamichi said, eyeing the hearts flashing from Haruko's eyes.

His partner just rolled his eyes and looked at their teacher who yelled, "Quiet!"

It was proof of how much Ms. Tanada had influenced her class that everyone became silent at once.

"Good. Go on Mr. Sakuragi."

But Hanamichi was not listening to her. His eyes were wide and he was looking at the doors of the room where several cameras had materialized.

"Eeeh! Rukawa! Look over here!"

Ms. Tanada groaned. She then used her most powerful weapon: The Terrible Gigantic Head of Doom to make the students outside the classroom immediately disappear.

"Ehem! So, please continue Mr. Sakuragi."

Hanamichi cowered a little before nodding and proceeding.

"Uhm…uh…" he looked at his notes but they gave him little assistance.

"The house, you moron," Kaede hissed.

"Oh! Yeah! The house! I knew that! Erm we chose this," Hanamichi pointed to an illustration that Kaede had just revealed. It was a sketch of the apartment that they had chosen a few months back. "It's an apartment that's okay with our budget plus there's this switch that's like an elevator and can make the living room rise up and make another room underneath. It's really cool!"

Ms. Tanada smiled at Hanamichi's enthusiasm.

"Nice find," she commented. "Now please go on quickly because time's almost up."

"Oh! Right! Uhm…here's a list of the stuff we want to put in our house. Most of them are from sales so we actually have extra left in our budget for furniture."

"Hey what're those pictures?" one of their classmates asked.

"That's some of the stuff we really like," Hanamichi walked over to the illustrations and pointed at the various sketches. "That's the sofa the fox likes and here's a chair made from those little walnut nuts. Anyway, the last list is our weekly grocery. We actually went to the store to get that done. Let's see…we have food and—"

"It's mostly chocolate and junk food," someone commented.

Hanamichi glared at the guy. "The teacher said to make a list of what you actually like and use so that's what we did. Got any problem with that?"

His classmate quickly shook his head.

"Good. Anyway, what was I saying…oh yeah, we have food there and some stuff for washing the dishes and clothes and for cleaning the house. So, there."

Both boys looked at Ms. Tanada.

"Whom did you ask for information?"

"My mom helped and Youhei's mom too," Hanamichi answered.

"And the real estate agent," Kaede muttered.

"And the real estate agent," Hanamichi parroted loudly. "And that grocery person who fainted when I got that prize from his store."

Ms. Tanada nodded, pleased that they had really done some footwork for the project. 

"Your budget looks realistic enough. And yes, contingencies mean those little emergencies that crop up once in a while that need extra money. Buying from sales is a nice idea too. It will not only save you some money, you may find little treasures from those places too."

She stood up and started walking back to the front.

"Okay, are there any questions?"

"Rukawa! What's your favorite chocolate?"

Ms. Tanada and Hanamichi glared at the girl who had asked the question. Kaede merely stared at her as if she was crazy.

"Any _relevant_ questions?" Ms. Tanada clarified.

The girl pouted but stayed silent.

"Okay, if there are no more questions," the teacher looked around the classroom missing the glare Hanamichi was giving to all his classmates should they be cocky enough to ask stupid questions, "let's give these two a round of applause."

"If only for the fact that they actually managed _not_ to kill each other over the past few months," she added silently.

Hanamichi beamed at everyone, especially at Haruko who looked like she was really clapping for him. Behind him, Kaede began putting down their visual aids. He finished just as the bell rang.

"Okay, we'll go on with the reports next week," Ms. Tanada announced. "I hope you will all give as good reports as those we have heard and seen today."

Everyone started fixing their things. Ms. Tanada looked at Kaede who had finished folding the papers he had used then at Hanamichi who was still smiling at Haruko.

"By the way, who did all those illustrations you used?" she asked.

Hanamichi looked at her.

"Oh the fox did all of them," he said. "That's our agreement he does all the drawings and I do all the talking."

"You idiot!" Kaede growled.

"What did you say?" Hanamichi snarled back.

"Look what you've done!" Kaede snapped.

Hanamichi and Ms. Tanada suddenly realized how silent the room had become. All three turned to face the class and found everyone staring at them. Hanamichi backed up a step at the auras emanating from most of his classmates.

"Ms. Tanada can I ask one last question?" one eerie voice asked.

"Uhm…all right..."

"Good…Rukawa, would you be willing to sell those illustrations for ¥1,000?"

"No! I'll pay ¥2,000!"

"¥3,000!"

The next teacher of Class 2-3 found himself in the middle of a very heated bidding session when he entered the room. Up front were Hanamichi and Kaede playing tug of war over some pieces of paper. Meanwhile, Youhei was presiding over the bids, which had reached ¥10,000.

"I bid ¥10,500!"

-TBC-

A/N: 

1. A new phase has started. Be afraid, people of Kanagawa! Nya-ha-ha-ha! 

2. I like Youhei. Anybody else thinks that he deserves more screen time? And that he shouldn't be saddled with Haruko in all those other fics? I mean, I like the girl but I think Youhei deserves someone better. Dontcha think so?

3. Just one question, are Hanamichi and Kaede becoming too OOC?

4. To Kuroi Neko-kun, the 'she-he' problem in chapter 7 happens because the two are supposed to be writing about a fictional coach hence the he. But they based that coach character on Ms. Tanada hence the she. They just keep forgetting that they're supposed to be using 'he' in their stories. Am I making sense here?

5. Of course, to all who reviewed the last chapter thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I can't thank you enough! Thank you! You keep me hanging in there and writing more! Thank you!


	12. Chapter 9: The Test

Playing House Chapter 9: The Test 

As soon as the bell rang, Class 2-3 immediately went into a flurry of tense activity, not even bothering to say goodbye to their Math teacher. An act that irked the old man to no end.

_"Hey, did you review our lesson last week?"_

_"No! Did Ms. Tanada say we have to study that too?"_

_"Idiot! She said the test would be something from what we've covered so far! I studied everything from the start!"_

A vein popped out on their departing teacher's forehead. They had never shown that much enthusiasm over one of his exams! He eyed them balefully as he closed the sliding door with an audible click. 

He turned around and met Ms. Tanada walking along the hall. She smiled at him. He frowned. He fought the very strong urge to pull down his eyelid behind her back. She was young and quite popular, but those things never made a teacher. It was the dedication to discipline, the passion to teach, the—oh what the heck!

He blew her a raspberry before hurrying back to the teacher's lounge to rant.

— 0 —

Ms. Tanada smiled at the muffled exclamations from within the room of her next class before pushing the door open.

"Good morning class! Please settle down."

It was proof of how much the class respected (or feared) her that they settled down immediately even though she was five minutes early.

"Okay, as I said yesterday we're going to have a little seatwork today."

She pulled out a brown envelope from her big bag from which she extracted several sheets of paper.

"Now, this will involve you and your partners for the Playing House project so can you please sit with your teammates while I distribute these?"

The students complied. This took several minutes because some students couldn't decide which partner would exchange seats. 

"I am not changing seats fox! You change your seat!" Hanamichi bellowed to his slightly snoozing partner. "Hurry up or the gori teacher will get mad!"

Ms. Tanada raised an eyebrow but ignored the redhead who was sneaking glances at her, gauging her reaction. She noted that Rukawa just stared at his partner, rose, went over to Youhei's vacated spot, and promptly settled his head on the table. His seat was instantly a battlefield of who-will-occupy-the-chair-Rukawa's-rump-has-been-warming-for-the-past-hours.

Ms. Tanada watched the girls (and some boys) fight before taking pity on the almost mutilated chair.

"Oi! Stop that! Mr. Mito stay in Mr. Rukawa's place. Ms. Seishirou stay beside him. The rest of you take your seats. NOW!"

After several more minutes, everyone finally settled down and the teacher began to distribute the work she had brought.

"I will be giving you three papers each. The first one is has a table which you will fill out. The other two are bills that I photocopied. Now," she turned back to the front of the class and smirked at the stunned faces of her students, "your little seatwork will be to organize these bills as compared with the budget that you submitted before. Are there any questions so far?"

Mina slowly raised her hand then pulled it back down quickly.

"Yes Ms. Seishirou?"

Mina looked around then leaned over Youhei and whispered something to him.

"Teacher," Youhei said after she finished, "Mina says these bills will almost cost all of our money and will be beyond our budget."

Ms. Tanada smiled.

"I've told you many times, I've researched this and these bills are what my friends actually get with the salary you're virtually getting every month. So, if they can budget these, so can you. Now, I suggest you get cracking." 

No one moved. She sighed.

"What you really have to do is to just put the amount of the bills on one column of the table and put your budget in the other. You can cross-charge or delete some things from a budget. You can write your notes in the third column. I just want to see if you can manage an actual budgeting session with actual bills. Theory is good, but I believe that you will learn something more with practice. So…?"

She sat down on her chair and smiled at her class beatifically.

"_Now_ class," she said. "You have until the end of the period to do this."

That galvanized the students. Some got cracking. Some shook their heads.

_"Hey, teacher can we use a calculator?"_

_"Sure."_

_"Anybody got a calculator?"_

_"Here use mine."_

_"Hey cool! This looks really hi-tech! Look at all those buttons!"_

Ms. Tanada watched as the student who borrowed the calculator stared at the equipment for a while with a very puzzled look on his face. The boy turned tot his classmate and asked, "Uhm…how do you turn it on?"

The owner shrugged. "I don't know."

"Eh?! You carry around a calculator that you can't even use?"

"Yeah. I bring it with me hoping somebody would show me how to use the damn thing!"

Ms. Tanada shook her head and looked around the room, her eyes automatically searching for her two most annoying yet charming students. Her eyes widened when she saw them actually WORKING! Hanamichi was writing something while Rukawa was glaring at the paper and muttering something. 

She looked outside the window to check if the sun was still in the sky or if some other catastrophe had settled over Kanagawa. Nope, everything was bright and sunny outside. She stood up and decided to roam around, her rout leading her to the back of the class.

When she finally reached her destination, she peeked over Hanamichi's head. When she read what the boy was writing down she had to fight a chuckle that almost erupted from her mouth. She coughed several times before putting on a stern face.

"Rukawa. Sakuragi."

The two stared at her.

"Bullying the bill collector so that he won't give you the bills won't solve your problems. The electric or the water company might just cut off your supply if you don't pay your bills. I suggest you just start with your budgeting instead of finding ways to beat up the bill collectors."

She turned her back to and continued going around the room. She heard snippets of arguments from the two but dismissed them as the norm.

_"Rukawa that's not correct. This genius knows what he is doing so this should be here!"_

_"We can still pay that at the end of the month stupid! This is more important."_

_"Yeah but if we take this out first then we can pay this and still have money for that at the end of the month!"_

_"No."_

_"Rukawa!"_

_"Moron."_

_"Fox!"_

Ms. Tanada shook her head and went back to her seat. She stayed there, answering questions once in a while, and only stood up ten minutes before the period ended.

"Okay, class, wrap it up. I have something for you to ponder on this weekend."

Her students obeyed and she pulled out a bag containing several strips of paper. 

"As you hand me your work, please get a piece of paper from this bag, okay?"

One by one each of the representatives came to the front until only the terrible duo remained not moving.

"Hey, Rukawa, you go give this. I was the one writing the whole time so it's time for you to do something!"

The whole class heard a snort as Kaede shifted his head. 

"RU-KA-WA!"

A wall of concerned admirers ™ suddenly surrounded the sleeping boy.

"You shouldn't harm Rukawa when he's taking his beauty sleep!"

"You're so beneath him that it's only natural for you to do all the dirty work for him!"

"Why you…!"

Ms. Tanada coughed and everyone fearfully faced her.

"Sit down."

They sat.

"Mr. Sakuragi please come to the front and hand in your work."

Hanamichi scowled at her then back at her still oblivious teammate. He cursed underneath his breath before approaching his teacher. He slammed the papers on her desk and pulled out one of the strips of papers inside.

Ms. Tanada nodded before smiling again.

"Now, you will notice that the papers you took have strips of colored papers wedged inside them. I want you to pull those strips out and look at what color you have gotten."

She waited as her order was obeyed.

"Hey cool! I got a red one! My favorite color!" Hanamichi yelled from the back.

Ms. Tanada almost choked. Her eyes widened and she almost backed out of her plan. She closed her eyes for a moment and squared her shoulders before continuing, her eyes opening again to sweep over the assembly.

"Okay, now I know most of you have heard of HPTs or home-pregnancy tests from your other subjects. For all those who got red strips of paper."

She took a deep breath and smiled crookedly.

"Congratulations, you're about to be parents."

— 0 —

Hanamichi and Kaede (who had awakened from Ms. Tanada's stern voice) stared at the red strip of paper in the redhead's hand. The rest of the people inside the room stared at them. Slowly Hanamichi shook his head and held up his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Sakuragi?"

"Teacher, will our baby come from a cherry blossom or a peach fruit?"

-TBC-

1. From now on I will call this section my author's rant corner. ARC for short. Cool huh? If don't wanna read the arc, just skip on over to that blue button at the bottom and click on it. For the rest, please read on. ^___^

2. For all those who asked me to update, Update, UPDATE! UPDAAATTTTEEEE ALREADY!! I'm sorry this took so long. I have the usual reasons: writer's block, my life was in a rut, my dog ate my word processor. The ultimate reason however is this: close your eyes for a moment and picture a small blue dragon in a black trenchcoat trying to inconspicuously do research on human pregnancy tests in the middle of a grocery aisle full of humans! Now do you see how hard I have been working all along?

3. Anyway, thanks again to all those who have reviewed. You really inspire me to go on despite my depressed existence right now. Hope you like this chappie, it's really for you guys.

4. To all those wondering what Hanamichi meant with his last question, that's going to be answered in the next chapter. See you there!


	13. Interlude: Sakuragi Gundan's Short Lectu...

Playing House Interlude: Sakuragi Gundan's Short Lecture on How Babies Are Born 

A tick appeared on Hanamichi's head.

"WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

The tick became bigger and the throbbing intensified.  

"You still believe what Aunt Hanako said when we were kids!"

The tick dominated his entire forehead.

"Only kindergarteners would believe that!"

Several baby ticks joined the first one and exploded. The result was inevitable. His friends lay on the hallway with bumps steaming from their foreheads. 

"SHUT UP OR I'LL SERIOUSLY HURT YOU!!!!" Hanamichi yelled belatedly, his face as red as his hair as he remembered what had happened during his last social studies class.

— 0 —

Hanamichi and Kaede (who had awakened because of Ms. Tanada's stern voice) stared at the red strip of paper in the redhead's hand. The rest of the people inside the room stared at them. Slowly Hanamichi shook his head and held up his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Sakuragi?"

"Teacher, will our baby come from a cherry blossom or a peach fruit?"

Everyone stared mutely at the redhead for several minutes. Hanamichi at all of them and growled, "What?"

Ms. Tanada finally shook her head.

"What—what exactly did you mean by your question Mr. Sakuragi?"

"Well don't babies come from cherry blossoms and peaches like Momotaro?" Hanamichi asked innocently. "My mother said I came from a flower that's why she named me Hanamichi."

It took exactly ten seconds before the whole class erupted into loud laughter, well the whole class except for Kaede and Haruko. Hanamichi turned his head this way and that trying to figure out what was so funny.

— 0 —

Hanamichi stomped towards the gym for practice leaving behind his prone friends.

Later on, Ryota Miyagi found him staring at the orange ball in his hand. Now this would not have been unusual. Hanamichi was known to stare off in space from time to time, specially when their assistant manager was there. This time, however, something seemed off. For one thing he wasn't fighting with Kaede, which he did even if he was daydreaming. Second thing, Kaede was actually staring at the redhead and not provoking him into a fight.

Something was going on and it was up to him as the captain to find out what it was. He threw a brief glance at their team's manager. 

"Besides, I just might get some cute points from Ayako if I stepped up and acted captainly," he thought. 

With that in mind he walked over to the redhead and decided to approach the boy in a decidedly calm and tactful manner.

"Yo, Hanamichi you really shouldn't think too much? It's bad to fry your brains like that. So, wassup?"

Hanamichi glared at him. Ryota smiled cheekily back. Hanamichi's face changed. Ryota felt a trickle of apprehension in his spine. Hanamichi looked around before dragging his captain to a corner.

"What the—Hanamichi leggo!"

The redhead gripped his captain's shirt tighter.

"Ryochin! You have to tell me!"

Ryota disengaged himself from his player's grip.

"What the hell!" he cried. " What do you want to me to tell you?"

Hanamichi looked around again before mumbling something.

"What?" Ryota shouted. 

"I said tell me how babies are made!" Hanamichi bellowed.

The whole gym became silent. The two boys glanced around.

"Uhm…uh…we have to practice now," Ryota suddenly sprinted towards the other players. "Oi hustle up! We're not gonna get that championship with you guys lazing around!"

Hanaichi almost cried when his friend left him. His frustration turned to anger when he saw his gang laughing their butts off near the gym doors. He charged them and gave them each a headbutt that would last them until the end of basketball practice.

"This is one of those times I wish Glasses-boy was still here," he muttered as he resumed his practice.

— 0 —

Hanamichi plodded out of the locker room and found his gang lounging at the school entrance. He ignored them and hurried out. The other boys followed him.

"Hanamichi…we were only stating facts," Ookusu said, covering his still aching forehead.

"Yeah…jeez, Hanamichi, didn't your dad tell you about the birds and the bees?" Takamiya blurted out.

The fat boy was immediately pummeled by the other three members of the gundan.

_"Idiot!"_

_"Aaah!"_

_"You have no feelings whatsoever!"_

_"Sorry!"_

_"You moron! Watch your mouth!"_

_"I'm sorry already!!!"_

The trio stopped and all turned to see a teary Hanamichi gazing at the sky.

"Hey, Hanamichi, stop being sad," Youhei said. "C'mon, I bet by tomorrow everyone would've forgotten that you still believe babies come from cherry blossoms or peaches or bamboo or whatever, like in those stories."

"But Youhei…" Hanamichi turned to face the dark-haired boy, "if they don't come from those things, then where do babies come from?"

Youhei turned to the others who nodded in agreement. Everyone suddenly shrunk to _chibi_ sizes and Youhei produced a pair of glasses, which he put on.

"Well you see Hana-chan," Prof. Youhei Mito-chan produced a lollipop and used it as a pointer towards the screen that suddenly materialized on which a video of boy and girl stick figures were being projected waving at Hanamichi, "when a girl and a boy like each other, they usually express that liking by kissing."

The stick figures on the screen started making out. Hanamichi whipped out his notebook and pen to take down notes while the rest of his friends took care of the visual aids and the projector. 

"And sometimes they get so excited that they go beyond kissing and proceed to necking and other stuff. Then they throw their clothes off and do the horizontal tango."

"They dance?" Hanamichi asked incredulously as he stared at the figures that looked like they were having seizures while lying down.

"Yep. They do. Then when they're done, they wait nine months while the baby grows up in the girl's tummy. When it's time, the doctors help cut up the girl and the baby is born."

A small stick figure of a baby was shown crying on the screen.

Hanamichi's eyes took up half his face as he digested his friend's lecture.

"So that's how it is…" a nasal voice muttered.

All four friends turned around to find Kaede sitting behind them with his own notebook full of drawings and nodding at the screen.

"FOX?!"

-TBC-

ARC: 

1. I finally reached the 100 reviews mark!!! Wooohoo!!!! I love you all!!! This little interlude is for you!!! Sorry it's short and has no point whatsoever but I needed Hanamichi (and Kaede) to learn a valuable albeit extremely edited lesson. Thanks again to al those who reviewed! Hope you stay tuned for the next chappies! Thank you everyone!

2. Momotaro is a Japanese mythological boy/hero who came from a peach.


	14. Chapter 10: The Schedule

Playing House Chapter 10: The Schedule 

Ms. Tanada opened her mouth to greet her class a good morning but—

"YO! Newbie teacher! I heard that it takes a girl and a boy to have a baby!"

Ms. Tanada set her things down on her table.

"That is correct Mr. Sakuragi," she answered, her eyes focusing on the tall redhead.

"Then how come me and the fox get to have one?"

The young teacher raised an eyebrow in surprise. So, the boy had learned about the birds and bees. Her eyes shifted and she was even more surprised to see Kaede nodding his head. Of course it may have been that the boy was just asleep—but, no wait! His eyes were glaring at her! He was awake and agreeing with the redhead!

"Uhm…well you see there are many ways to get a child without going through the usual process. There's artificial insemination—"

"Ar-ti-fi-cia-ru inse—what?!"

Ms. Tanada looked at all the faces staring raptly at her. She wasn't sure if she was the right person to talk about sex education since she didn't really have any experience in that department.

"It's an alternative method of getting pregnant," she said after a long pause. "Another method is adoption. How about this, for you and Mr. Rukawa we will pretend that a relative of yours died recently and you two decided to adopt the child instead of giving it up for orphanage or some other relative. Is that satisfactory?"

She saw the two boys adopt thinking poses and smiled.

"While you're both thinking, let's get on with the lesson for today, shall we?"

— 0 —

"Okay, for our next meeting we'll continue this chapter. Oh and before I forget, so, Mr. Rukawa and Mr. Sakuragi, do you agree to my proposal?"

All students turned to the two boys who shared a brief look over Youhei's shoulder.

"We'll fail if we don't do it, huh?" Hanamichi asked.

Ms. Tanada just smiled.

"We'll do it," Kaede said.

Ms. Tanada nodded.

"Good. Now for your next assignment for the project, I want you to give me a schedule."

"EH?! SCHEDULE?!"

"Yep, a schedule for a week. Remember that you guys are partners. That means you and your companion must share things equally. Also remember that you both work, which means you'll probably both be tired to even lift a finger at the end of the day. Does this mean that you'll let the dirty plates just pile up?"

 "Of course not!" a girl piped in confidently. "Tomi will do all the washing!"

"But what if he's sick?" Ms. Tanada countered. "Or what if he has overtime work? For those who have children, who will take care of the baby and when? Consider all these things. I'll give you two weeks to think this over. Thank you very much for listening today."

— 0 —

Hanamichi slammed the front door, calling out a loud "I'm home" to the living room. His mother came out of the kitchen to greet him.

"Welcome home dear," she called out. "You seem agitated?"

Hanamichi dumped his things to the floor, removed his shoes, slipped on some slippers, and finally kissed his mother as he walked towards her.

"It's nothing mom! I'm just mad at the fox!"

"Your partner? Again?"

"He just won't listen! I told him that I'll take care of the baby and other things in the house on Tuesdays and Thursdays only because I have work on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays but he won't listen!!! ARG!!!!! Stupid fox!!!"

"You two haven't done your schedule yet? Youhei and his partner have done theirs last week."

"Because I've got a stupid partner who won't listen!"

Mrs. Sakuragi smiled at her son. It was indeed rare to see him all worked up about something other than basketball and Haruko Akagi. She led him into the dining room where dinner was laid out.

"Just why won't he listen to your demands anyway?" she asked when she saw her son slow down shoveling food into his mouth.

 "Oh, because he says he's got work too. But I had dibs on the work schedule on those days 'cause Youhei also has those days off!"

"And you want to be free to be with Youhei during those days," Mrs. Sakuragi wisely concluded.

"Well yeah! 'Sides my favorite TV program will be on during those days!"

"Hanamichi…" Mrs. Sakuragi looked at her son for a moment before getting up and taking the dishes to the kitchen. "You know your dad and I also had to make a schedule when we were first married."

"You did?" Hanamichi stopped short, carrying two plates in his hands. "Why?" 

"Well because we were both working and then we had you."

"Me?" 

"Why, yes, of course. Taking care of a baby is not an easy thing to do. You won't even have time to visit your friend, especially when your baby is as energetic as you were."

Mrs. Sakuragi pinched Hanamichi's cheek.

"Aw, mom! Stop it!"

The old lady giggled.

"I remember that even while crawling you were already very fast," she turned back to washing the dishes while her son rummaged around for a snack to munch on while listening. 

"Anyway, dad and I made this schedule that we posted near the TV where we could easily see it. We'd discuss every change that would occur. The schedule was not just to make sure we had a fair share of the work, but to also make us see that work doesn't just involve going to the office. Working at home can be just as tiring. Most importantly, the schedule reminded us that in everything we did, we had a partner who would be there at the end of the day to share our problems and our joys with."

Hanamichi tearfully looked at his mother then proceeded to hug her.

"I miss him," he whispered.

"Me too," she whispered back. "Hey, want to know a secret?"

She pulled back to look at his face.

"Every time I look at you, I know in my heart that he will always be my with me because he left me a wonderful son to take his place."

The tears threatened to overflow over Hanamichi's face but the moment was ruined when their doorbell rang. The redhead cursed softly.

"Hana…" his mother's voice warned him softly.

"Eh, he-he, sorry mom. I'll just go get the door."

Hanamichi sprinted towards the door and flung it open. His jaw dropped when he saw who the visitor was. He stared. He blinked. He rubbed his eyes. 

"Oi, aren't you going to invite me in, stupid," Kaede muttered after waiting for a while.

"Ahhh! Fox! What're you doing here?"

"We need to finish the homework or we'll fail."

"But what're you doing here?"

"Idiot, to do the assignment of course."

"Hanamichi who's our guest?" Mrs. Sakuragi asked, coming out of the kitchen. "Why don't you invite him in?"

Hanamichi looked at her and pointed at Kaede.

"Mom! It's the fox! It's the bane of my existence! He's here! Wait a minute…" he turned back to Kaede, "you're really here. Ah! You might infect our house with your stupidity and foxy ways? Mom, we have to disinfect him first! I'll go get the alcohol."

He proceeded to run to his room.

"Stop it Hanamichi," Mrs. Sakuragi scolded, pulling his son by his shirt with surprising strength then turning to Kaede. "Please come in."

Kaede bowed respectfully causing Hanamichi to almost have a seizure.

"Thank you. My name is Kaede Rukawa. Forgive me for intruding this late," Kaede said causing Hanamichi to really have a seizure. 

Mrs. Sakuragi let her son collapse on the floor, twitching and clutching his heart. She was used to his theatrics.

The dark-haired boy also ignored him. "We just need to finish this assignment for our project," he explained softly to the old lady as he let her lead him to the seats.

"I understand. Have you eaten dinner?" Mrs. Sakuragi asked.

"Yes."

"Well, maybe you'd like some tea while you work?"

"That would be nice. Thank you very much."

Mrs. Sakuragi beamed at him before going into the kitchen. Only when she was gone did Kaede look at Hanamichi's prone body.

"Oi, idiot, are you going to stay there all night or are you going to come here so we can start?"

Hanamichi jumped from lying to full battle mode in seconds.

"Damn you fox! Now you've got my mom under your spell too! Well you can't have her! She's my mom and I will free her from whatever witchcraft you put on her and every other girl who meets you! You hear me?!"

"Whatever."

"Damn you—"

"You can have the Tuesdays and Thursdays with the baby."

Hanamichi stopped in the middle of trying to strangle Kaede.

"What?"

"You heard me the first time, stupid."

"Why?"

Hanamichi was so surprised that he actually sat down opposite his partner.

"I'll agree but you have to do the laundry on those days too," Kaede explained further.

"What?!" Hanamichi bellowed, standing up again. "Laundry day is supposed to be Saturdays?"

"Yeah, but the baby stuff will need to be washed more because it's going to be used faster."

"Huh?"

"It's true, Hanamichi," Mrs. Sakuragi interjected as she came in with a pot of tea and two cups. "Babies tend to get dirty a lot. There are now dispensable diapers but a lot of mothers still prefer the old linen cloth more since they cause less rashes."

Kaede nodded. The two began a discussion on diapers and baby clothes. Hanamichi looked from one to another before feeling left out.

"Oi, oi! Hey I'm still here!" he said, sitting beside his mom and wrapping his arms around her to get her attention.

His mother laughed and patted his arm.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Well I'll leave you two so you can get started."

The two boys stood up with her and bowed to her, Hanamichi giving her a small peck, as she left. Before she reached the door to her room, Hanamichi caught up with her.

"Hey, wait mom, since you and dad had a schedule, maybe you can stay and see if what we do is okay," the boy whispered fervently. "That fox might do something wrong and you can back me up when I say that he's stupid."

"Hanamichi I don't think I should…"

"Oh please mom…please?"

Mrs. Sakuragi took one look at Hanamichi's eyes and caved in.

"Okay. But I'll be here to just advise you guys. No saying one of you is stupid or anything like that," she said as they walked back to the couch.

"Okay! Hey, Fo—Rukawa, mom's gonna stay and see our work."

Kaede nodded and whispered a thank you to Mrs. Sakuragi.

"Oh, it's quite alright," the old lady answered. "This is probably the first time I'll be seeing Hanamichi actually do his homework."

"Mom!"

"Right, right. So, what exactly have you done?"

"I have it here in my bag somewhere," Kaede answered, rummaging through his backpack.

An idea suddenly hit Hanamichi.

"Hey, fox? Oi, Rukawa!"

Kaede looked up and met the other boy's eyes.

"How did you know where I live? I'm sure I never told you…"

Kaede dropped his eyes, took out a piece of paper from his bag, and turned to Mrs. Sakuragi.

"This is what we've come up so far," he said handing her the paper.

"Oi, Rukawa! I asked you a question! Oi! Answer me! Damn you!!!"

-ARC-

1. Wow! I didn't know you guys would like the last interlude so much! Thank you all for liking and reviewing it!!!! Oh and anime-luverjc, i'm honored that you placed my story in your favorites. thanks. ^___________^

2. I've finally introduced Hanamichi's mom and his house. Yay! I'll need them for future chapters. Please tell me what you think. Thank you.


	15. Interlude: Baby Blues

Playing House Interlude: Baby Blues 

ARC: Lots of swearing from frustrated "parents" ^___^

"Goood morning Class 2-3!" Professor Matsu cheerfully called out as he hefted a big box into the room.

This unusual display of happiness would have been enough to get the class' attention. The big box had them all staring, making no effort to help at all as their teacher gave a final pull and stood up straight to grin at them.

"Yo! Teacher what's in the box?" Sakuragi bellowed. "Didja bring your old clothes or something?"

The old man's grin widened despite the implied insult. He opened the box with flourish and everyone was presented with—

"Dolls?" the students asked in unison.

"Yes. Dolls. You see class I had a talk with Ms. Tanada about your little project and I learned that some of you have become "parents" recently. A bright idea hit me right away that this would be the perfect opportunity to have a hands-on mini-project that will tie-up that lesson with our lesson in Biology. And for that I have requisitioned for these special dolls."

He held up one doll triumphantly. His students just stared at him. His smile faltered.

"Hey! Old man the Genius has more important thing to do than play like a girl!" Sakuragi shouted, breaking the lull.

Prof. Matsu's face regained its usual frowning visage.

"Mr. Sakuragi, as it is you are barely passing this class, if you or anyone else in this room do not go through with this project then I will be forced to give you a failing grade. Do we understand each other?" he glared at the class in general before resuming his happy expression. 

He began handing out the toys to those in the front rows who immediately passed them to those at the back. 

"Besides class, these are not just ordinary dolls—I want each of the partners to please get one—they are highly technical models that are used to simulate real babies. All of them have microchips inside that will make them cry when hungry or laugh when taken cared of."

As an example he shook the baby a little and it began to emit a gurgling sound. This triggered the other babies to start emitting various sounds.

"All you have to do is to take care of them for one week. I will be giving you this," he held up what looked like an ordinary feeding bottle filled with milk. "This bottle has a chip at the tip that you will place into the babies' mouths when they are hungry to simulate feeding. The liquid inside can be replenished with just plain water." 

He held out the bottle for the class to see and mimicked inserting it into the doll's mouth.

"Be warned though, the chip inside the babies are highly sensitive. If you "feed" them too much they will simulate indigestion or some such sickness, which you do not want to happen."

He grinned again.

"One week. You have to take care of it for one week. Feed it, cloth it, sing it to sleep, be its parents for one week. After that I want you to write an essay on your experience with it. Ms. Tanada told me that you have just submitted a weekly task guide. I suggest you follow that for this assignment too. Now, I don't think I need to tell you," he glared again at Hanamichi who was attempting to poke the doll with a pen resulting in high-powered crying, "that the babies must still be alive, and by alive I mean functioning properly, for you to pass this experiment. Does anyone have any questions? If you don't then I suggest you use the rest of the period to get acquainted with you babies."

Several students raised their hands and as he answered their questions, Prof. Matsu warily looked at the two tall boys at the back and wondered if they would pass this test or not.

— 0 —

"You take it!" Hanamichi said, shoving the crying "baby" into Kaede's hands.

"No, you!" Kaede answered, shoving the thing back.

"No, you!"

"Uh, guys," Youhei interrupted.

The two glanced at him. He pointed at the now choking baby.

"You're killing the baby," he deadpanned.

"Ak! Now look what you've done fox! You almost killed the thing!"

"Me? You were the one shoving it around!"

"Uh…guys?" Youhei interrupted again.

"What?" the two cried in unison then went back to glaring at each other.

"You're still killing it."

— 0 —

"No! No! No! And three more Nos! it's gonna be Kenishi Sakuragi!"

"No. Kentaro Rukawa."

"NO! His name will be Kenishi Sakuragi!"

"Idiot, Kentaro Rukawa!"

"Kenishi!"

"Kentaro!"

"Hey guys!" Youhei pleasantly greeted the two glaring boys while holding his own model baby. "What're you arguing about now?"

"The name of the doll," Hanamichi answered, still not backing down from the glaring match. "This stupid guy wants to name him Kentaro. Can you think of a more stupid name?"

"Yes," Kaede declared firmly. "Kenishi!"

Youhei just sighed. "Glad Minna and I didn't argue about little Hinoki's name."

"Hinoki?" Hanamichi parroted, glancing at his friend.

"Yeah, Minna said it was a cute name and I agreed."

"At least you thought up a good name," Kaede muttered. "This idiot can't think of one even if he thought all week."

"What did you say you stupid fox? You think you're so smart? You're nothing but a stupid fox! And you're not naming my baby with some stupid name either!"

"It's mine too! And I say his name is Kentaro!"

"Uh guys…guys?"

The two tall boys transferred their glares to Youhei who just smirked at them. He was getting used even to Kaede's icy stares.

"Why don't you just name it Ken," he suggested.

The two blinked at him.

"Well you seem to agree with the Ken part so why not just use that?"

The two continued to blink in unison.

— 0 —

"Hey mom I'm hooome!" Hanamichi called out 

"Hello dear," his mom greeted from the doorway to her room. "Oh my, what is that sticking out from your bag?"

"Oh this?" Hanamichi plucked out the model baby and held it out. "It's for this Bio-class. Me and Rukawa have to take care of it. It's…"

Hanamichi noticed something dripping from the baby's body. His eyes widened and he shoved it to his mother as he frantically opened his bag. His eyes widened even more as he touched his things and realized just how extraordinary the model babies were.

"What is it dear?" his mom asked gingerly holding the naked doll.

"AAAAARRRGGG! That thing just peed on my things!"

— 0 —

Kaede glared warily at what he had dubbed as "evil thing from hell worse than Sakuragi's laughter and singing voice." The thing emitted a gurgling sound then settled down. The boy continued to stare at it. It was truly an evil thing because it hadn't given him any peace for the whole night. It seemed to know just when he was about to fall asleep and when his eyes were just about to close—

"WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

Kaede jerked awake and glared at the evil doll from hell.

"Dammit Ken! Let me sleep!"

— 0 —

"Dammit! Ow! Arg! Hey mom! How the hell do you put this diaper thing again?"

Mrs. Sakuragi peeked into her son's room and almost burst out laughing. Hanamichi had managed to bunch up the makeshift cloth diaper around the doll's lower body. Another cloth was on twisted on top of the boy's head, which she was sure was a failed attempt at folding the diaper the proper way.

"Ouch! Arg! Stupid pin! Why won't it stay—arg! still! Aha! I have finally conquered the diaper! Ha! Beat that Rukawa!"

Hanamichi proudly held up the baby for his mother to look. The poorly pinned cloth promptly fell to the floor.

"ARG!"

— 0 —

"Excuse me."

The young girl at the sales counter of the local grocery store turned and froze as she breathe, "Rukawa…"

A tick popped on Kaede's forehead but he ignored it. He was desperate. The moron had conveniently forgotten to tell him that the evil thing from hell could actually emit water to simulate peeing. The boy had found out in the worse possible way—it had peed on him after he had fed it. So now here he was at the grocery store trying to find some disposable diapers as every cloth diaper Hanamichi had given him had been used.

"I need to buy some diapers," he gritted out, ignoring the impulse to shake the swooning girl in front of him.

"Rukawa~"

Then again maybe he wouldn't need the girl after all. The store wasn't that big. He would find his way—eventually. With this in mind, he promptly turned on his heels and went to the first aisle.

"Ruka—eh?" the fan suddenly snapped awake. "Where'd he go? Wait a minute did he just ask where he can find diapers? And was that a doll sticking out of his bag? Oh well, maybe I'll see him again when he checks out whatever it is he needs from the store. Rukawa~"

Half an hour later, Kaede finally found the aisle containing the products for babies—the aisle containing _many_ brands of diapers. He knew somehow that there were a lot of brands but he never knew just how many they were. 

He cursed softly. Then his eyes glinted as he approached the first brand of diaper. It was an evil thing from hell but he would still buy the best diaper for it. He began his search. His fan was already off from her four-hour shift by the time the boy had made his decision.

— 0 —

Hanamichi jerked awake as the "baby" cried its mechanical lungs out. He glanced at the clock and groaned.

"Why would this thing cry at two in the morning?"

"Hanamichi?"

Hanamichi jerked from his bed and covered Ken with his blanket. He then rushed to the door and peeked at his mom.

"Eh-he-he. Sorry about that mom. I dunno why the baby suddenly cried in the middle of the night."

"Where is it?"

"Uh…under the covers."

"Hanamichi if it were a real baby it would suffocate from there! Get it out now!"

Hanamichi scampered towards his bed and extricated the still crying doll and checked it. His mom smiled at the way he immediately cradled the thing in his arms—something she had taught him only the night before. 

"I'm going back to bed," she said as she began to close the door. "Good night dear."

"Night mom," Hanamichi answered distractedly.

"Oh, Hana-dear?"

Hanamichi looked up to find his mother smiling at him.

"If it won't eat, why don't you sing it a lullaby? That's what your father and I would do when you were a baby and you would wake up in the middle of the night."

The redhead blinked as she finally closed the door.

"A lullaby?" he mumbled, looking at the doll.

He wracked his mind for a song, discarding the "genius song" several times until he remembered a melody his mother would hum whenever she was cooking. He experimentally hummed a few bars while he swayed the doll. He was surprised to find it calming down after a while. He proceeded to lie down, still cradling it and still humming his song. By the time he had found a good position, Ken was already "sleeping" and it wasn't very long before Hanamichi was fast asleep too.

— 0 —

The whole gym hushed up as Kaede dribbled the ball in preparation for a penalty shot. He took his unique position, inhaled, and—

"WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Kaede dropped the ball as he and everyone else in the gym stared at the Shohoku bench were several freshmen players tried to shut up the model doll.

"Hanamichi! Rukawa! If you don't shut up that baby this instant I will personally make sure that you don't play in the game tomorrow!" Captain Miyagi shouted at his two juniors.

"What the hell is going on? What is that thing?" the referee yelled as the crying continued. "If you don't shut that thing up I will give charge a penalty against Shohoku!"

Hanamichi and Kaede rushed to the doll.

"Idiot! I told you to feed it before we started practice."

"I did! You were the one not paying attention to it!"

"Well it's your baby!"

"It's your baby too!"

— 0 —

Kaede placed the evil thing from hell on Hanamichi's head, slumped into his seat, and proceeded to slobber all over his table even before the first bell rang. Hanamichi looked at his partner then at the "sleeping" doll. He extricated their report from his bag as he looked around. He saw that most of his classmates were also practically dead on their feet. Well, except for Youhei and Minna, who were playing with their doll as if it were a real baby.

"Gee, Youhei and Minna sure enjoy being parents…" he thought as the bell rang. 

Just as Prof. Matsu entered the room, two of their classmates entered the room looking like they had been in a fight.

"Professor!" the girl wailed. "Someone killed our baby!"

"Eh? What happened?" the teacher asked.

"Well," the boy explained as his partner began sobbing, "see we were kinda in this party last night when we left the thing near the pool for a while and when we went back it was gone."

"All that was left was this!" the girl sobbed as she held up a pink bracelet.

Before the teacher could respond they all heard a knock and a senior student entered.

"Excuse me professor but I found this hanging from our tree last night and I knew your classes were having an experiment on it so I brought it today."

The boy held up a model doll wearing a gaudy pink dress with a pink ribbon tied in its hair and pink shoes.

"Momo!"

Prof. Matsu sighed.

"I really hope they got the real lesson of this assignment," he thought as he looked around the room.

"Sheesh!" Hanamichi blurted out loud. "Taking care of babies is really hard work! What the hell are those people thinking making so many babies they can't take care of!"

Prof. Matsu smiled.

-TBC-

ARC: 

1. Again, thank you to all who reviewed. To annedrew, I'm okay with you posting my fic in your site, just please tell me what site it is. Thanks.

2. Ken is such a nice name. Oh and just in case anyone wants to know, Matsu is Japanese for pine tree while Hinoki is a Japanese cypress and Momo is a peach tree.


	16. Phase Three: Another Update Report

Playing House Phase 3: Another Update Report 

Pre-ARC warning: potty mouth Hanamichi.

"This is the living room."

"…"

"This is the den."

 "…"

"This is mom's solarium."

"…"

"This leads to the garden."

"…"

"That's the library."

"…"

"That's the music room."

"…"

"That's dad's private study."

"…"

"That's mom's private study."

"…"

"That's dad's private library."

"…"

"Let's go upstairs. Oi, stupid, you look even more stupid with your mouth open like that."

Kaede stopped at the bottom of the left flight of the grand staircase and cocked an eyebrow at his unusually silent redhead partner who immediately snapped his mouth close.

"Jeez! Rukawa! You're rich!"

Hanamichi cringed a little at what he had said. Words just escaped him as the reality of Kaede's fortune struck him.

"I'm not rich," Kaede stated turning back to go upstairs. "I don't own this. My parents do. I'm just their child."

Hanamichi spluttered as he followed his partner.

"But isn't that supposed to mean you kind of own all these stuff too?"

"No," Kaede answered.

"But why? You're their kid so it just means that—woah! How many rooms do you have here?"

"I don't know," Kaede shrugged. "I usually just stay on my side of the house."

He led Hanamichi through a hall and turned right.

"This is my wing," he said as entered a new hall.

"Uhm…how many room do _you_ have here?" the redhead asked looking right and left at the many closed doors.

"Ten."

"Woah! Really? What the heck do you need ten rooms for?"

"I don't use all of them," Kaede said as he opened the last door to the right. "They're just there. Anyway, here's the computer. It's new. Try not to destroy it."

"Hey! I've never destroyed Mina's computer!"

"Yeah, but she was always there to stop you from doing anything stupid. She's not here now."

"Well who told you to buy a new computer anyway? We could've used her computer until the end of the year. She was okay with it."

"You're really stupid," Kaede sighed as he plopped down on a chair.

"Dammit Rukawa stop calling me stupid!" Hanamichi growled as he stalked towards the set up computer. "You're the one who's stupid! You buy a computer you can't even use!"

"At least I'm not a parasite who likes to feed off other people's kindness."

"What do you mean by that?" Hanamichi yelled, stalking instead towards his partner.

"See, you can't even figure out some simple logic."

"Damn you Rukawa! I know what you meant! And I don't leech off my friends' kindness. Jeez, you're a real typical spoiled brat who thinks he can buy everything! I've got news for you fox, friends help each other. We do stuff for each other. That's what friends are for!"

"But there is such a thing taking too much advantage," Kaede stubbornly countered, standing up and facing Hanamichi head on.

"Of what? Friends don't keep count of where or when they help their friends out! They just do! But of course you wouldn't know that 'cause you've never had any friends huh?"

The two glared at each other. They were about to resort to a punching match when they heard a knock on the door.

"Young master, we have the snack that you wanted," a voice said from the other side.

Hanamichi was instantly opening the door and letting the servants in who entered loaded with several trays filled with fruits, drinks, and various sandwiches and pastries.

"Oi," Kaede called out at the drooling redhead. "You're not eating anything until you start our work first."

"But I'm hungry. I need energy to type!" Hanamichi said snatching a piece of pastry from a tray.

He was about to pop it into his mouth when it was snatched back from him. He glared at the servant who smiled back at him.

"If the young master says you are not to eat anything yet, then you will not be rude as to disobey him," the man said.

Hanamichi growled out a curse and was about to throttle the man when Kaede's hand grabbed his.  

"Just start the damn project you idiot," Kaede said, dragging Hanamichi towards the computer. "The sooner you start, the sooner you'll be able to eat. Besides," his voice dropped considerably, "it's never good to argue with Mr. Benibana. He looks harmless but he's really tough."

The last comment startled Hanamichi enough that Kaede was able to settle him on the new ergonomic chair he bought with the computer set. The redhead looked from his partner to the old man and back. He grumbled something under his breath and booted up the computer.

Kaede went back to his bag and retrieved his notes. He motioned the servants to leave but Mr. Benibana stubbornly stayed. Kaede sighed in defeat and just gave his notes to his partner.

Hanamichi took off the dust covering off the keyboard and swore loudly.

"What the heck did you get Rukawa!"

Kaede frowned at him then at the equipment.

"What?" he asked. "I asked for the latest model and this is what they gave me. Is it broken?"

"Look at this!" Hanamichi yelled, shoving the keyboard towards the other boy's face.

"It's the thing that you use to type," Kaede said.

"Yeah, but look! Look! I don't even know half of the keys that are here! This isn't like Mina's keyboard!"

"That's not my problem," Kaede said, turning around.

"What?" Hanamichi shrieked. "This is your problem too! How can I start our report when I can't even handle the keyboard?"

Kaede looked at the redhead over his shoulder.

"I thought you said you're a genius with computers? How can you call yourself that when you can't even use an ordinary keyboard?"

Hanamichi sputtered.

"Of course I'm a genius! There is no computer thingy that I can't handle! You just wait and see!"

With that declared Hanamichi turned back to the now challenging piece of equipment with a bright gleam in his eyes. He was going to conquer the damn machinery even if he didn't get a snack for the next hours! He would win!

Several minutes later he finally figured out which keys were familiar. He was curious about the other keys but he didn't want to try them out just then. It took him nearly a quarter of an hour to figure out the much more advanced software installed in the new computer. He was mentally exhausted when he was finally able to open up a new document with Word.

When that was done and he was able to encode some preliminary notes, he took a deep breath and readied his gloating speech on Kaede. Before he could utter anything, however, a small plate of assorted snacks and a glass of juice was placed on the table near him. He looked up to see Kaede blankly staring at him.

"I said you just needed to start the thing before you could eat," Kaede stated before turning back to the long table of snacks. "I'll start drawing the baby."

Hanamichi frowned at Kaede's back before deflating a little. He had been deprived of a good rant but food was calling so he supposed that he could forego his speech just that once.

But he certainly didn't forego the small mindless chatter as he ate his snack.

"Wow! These are good!" "What's in this?" 

_"Hey, can your cook give my mom the recipe to this?"_

_"I can eat ten of these!"_

"Hey, fox, why do you like blue so much? Even the computer's blue and the chair!" 

Kaede looked up from his drawing.

"I like it," he said before going back to his task.

Hanamichi looked at him, startled that Kaede actually answered one of his inane questions.

"Hmp! I think red is a better color!" he finally declared, turning back to his own task.

There was relative silence for several hours punctuated by Hanamichi's grumblings about evil machines not working properly and making his life hard and eviler partners who didn't know anything about computers.

The redhead was finishing the last part of their schedule grid when it happened. The lights went out. 

There was several seconds of silence before Hanamichi anguished scream came in time with the power coming back on.

The boy just stared at the now restarting machine. He was silent for so long that Kaede walked over to him and poked his arm with a pencil.

"Oi, moron, why are you just staring at that thing? It's already okay."

Hanamichi slowly looked at him with wide, teary eyes. Kaede's eyes widened at his partner's expression.

"I didn't save it," Hanamichi whispered.

"What?"

Hanamichi suddenly shot up from his chair and gripped Kaede's shoulders.

"I DIDN'T SAVE THE LAST PART! I DIDN'T SAVE! I WANTED TO SAVE EVERYTHING AT THE END! NOW IT'S ALL GONE! GONE! EVERYTHING I WORKED ON FOR THE PAST HOUR IS ALL GONE!"

The redhead slumped back into his chair, pulling out his hair. Kaede gazed around the room in equal frustration. They froze in that tableau until Mr. Benibana cleared his throat. Both boys ignored him until he spoke up.

"If I may make a suggestion young master, perhaps you could call one of your classmates who might be able to help solve your predicament?"

The two boys gaped at him then Hanamichi snorted.

"What the heck are you saying? I told you the stuff is gone," he said. "Eh? Fox what the heck are you doing?"

Kaede ignored him as he strolled towards a phone and dialed a number.

"Hello….May please speak with Mina?….This is her classmate Rukawa, Kaede Rukawa…Thank you."

Hanamichi jumped up from his chair and rushed towards Kaede. He tried to grab the phone but Kaede held on to it.

"Give it to me fox!"

"You'll just babble on some nonsense! You always do when you overreact!"

"I DO NOT OVERREACT!"

They stopped their fight when they finally heard someone on the other line. The two boys held on to the piece of the phone they had their hands on.

Mr. Benibana coughed.

"Perhaps it would be advisable to just _share_ the phone…?" 

The two boys glared at each other then complied. Between them they managed to tell Mina what had happened.

"Oh! Have you tried opening up the program again?" Mina asked.

"No," Hanamichi answered.

"Why don't you try it," Mina said. "There's an autosave function built into each program. It might have saved most of what you've encoded."

The two rushed towards the computer still holding on to the thankfully cordless phone. Hanamichi opened up Word again and almost fainted when he found his table intact. He let go of the phone as he sat down again.

Kaede snorted at him and thanked Mina, saying that everything was fine. He pressed the off button and walked towards his nearly complete portrait of Ken, their baby doll.

"I told you that you always overreact," he whispered as he ambled towards his own desk. He looked back for a second and saw Hanamichi's ears as red as his hair.

— 0 —

"So we now know that taking care of babies is hard but they're okay if you really like babies and you can take care of them and feed them and everything else," Hanamichi concluded pointing to the picture of Ken.

The whole class clapped, for once agreeing with the loudmouth.

"Nice work," Ms. Tanada praised. "Any questions for these two?"

Several hands immediately shot up.

"Any relevant questions that will not raise any sessions of bidding over the paraphernalia of the reporters, which, by the way, are to be submitted to me," she clarified.

All the raised hands went down. A new lone hand went up. The teacher nodded at the student.

"How did you create your schedule? Did you flip a coin or something?"

The two boys in front briefly looked at each other.

"We started with that," Hanamichi answered. "Then we kind of talked about it and my mom helped so…"

The bell rang.

Ms. Tanada told them some reminders as Hanamichi and Rukawa got down their visuals.

"Hey," Rukawa muttered as he watched Hanamichi pull down their oversize schedule.

Hanamichi frowned at him.

"I just got a new scanner," Kaede said. "You can look at it early so you can use it properly when we need it. You can also bring Seishirou and Mito if you want…or if they want."

He shrugged and pulled down his Ken drawing. He was startled to feel Hanamichi's hand on his forehead. He irritably slapped it away.

"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed.

"I was just checking if you had a fever," Hanamichi explained. "You're actually being nice and friendly."

"I am not being nice or friendly," Kaede denied. "I won't care if you come or not or if you bring your friends or not. I just don't want you overreacting again if something goes wrong."

Hanamichi grinned at him. Kaede's eyes narrowed at the expression.

"What are you grinning at you moron?" he growled.

Hanamichi just grinned at him before turning around to the nearly deserted room.

"Hey Youhei, Rukawa's inviting us to his house to chill out!" the redhead hollered.

Kaede turned to deny what his partner said but found himself face to face with all three of his invitees. Apparently Hanamichi worked fast at spreading news. Mina bowed to him.

"We'd be glad to help you out with your new scanner Rukawa," she said.

Kaede mumbled something incoherent, caught Hanamichi's still grinning face, muttered something, and then bowed back at Mina.

"I'd be honored to have you as a guest," he said.

Youhei and Hanamichi grinned at each other. The Sakuragi gang was a package deal. Invite one and you invite all. They supposed Rukawa wouldn't mind the extra people who would help out. Of course, they wouldn't really tell the boy until they reached his house.

-TBC-

A/N: 

1. The final phase has started. Sorry it took so long. As always, reviews are much appreciated! And many thanks to those who've reviewed the story so far. ^___^

2. I'm going by the much-accepted rumor that Rukawa is rich and an only child with a very dysfunctional family. 

3. I live in a very small house so I making up all those rooms. 

4. A benibana looks like a sunflower.


	17. Chapter 11: The Final Task

Playing House Chapter 11: The Final Task 

ARC: Kinda boring—cept for the end.

"Good morning everyone!" Ms. Tanada greeted as she placed her things on her table and began to tape a large and folded manila paper over the board. "I know that you're all busy with many schoolwork and exams as the school year nears its end. I'm happy to announce that I'll be adding more to your work!"

She grinned at the groans and muttered curses thrown her way. She had been making the same introductory speech all morning and she still found her students' reactions humorous. 

"Yep! I don't care whether you're overworked! I will now present to you—" she turned to the paper and flipped it open—"the final task!"

The class was shown a very detailed outline for the Playing House Project. The last part had THE FINAL TASK written and underlined several times.

Ms. Tanada smiled at some of the stunned looks her announcement received. It seemed that some of her students hadn't realized just how much time had elapsed for the project.

"Gosh, I never realized just how much we've done!" a voice commented.

"Well, believe it class, you've really gone so far and I want to say just how proud I am for the hard work you've put into this project."

Ms. Tanada clapped for her students who in turn clapped for each other and their teacher as well.

"But—" the joyous clapping stopped, "but you still have the final task to do. Now, I don't know if you remember what I told you at the start of the term so I'll just recap now. For the final task you and your partners will have a sort of sleepover at the house of your choice."

She noted the glazed expressions of some of the partners who, according to rumors, had really become official couples.

"You have to decide which house you want to spend a whole weekend with, yours or your partner's," she continued. "We will do this experiment two weeks from now because that Saturday will be a holiday so there will be no classes and you can concentrate on your project. During those two days I want you to act like you're actually living like adults. You will do your schedule for weekends, you will do the budget with actual bills from your houses, you will do the grocery—you will do everything that we've done for the past term except for the house hunting and the furniture shopping and apply them to real life."

A hand shot up.

"But teacher I have several siblings and we're a really big family. I don't think our bills will be like those for two people," the student said.

Ms. Tanada frowned.

"That is a valid point," she said. "Thank you for bringing it up."

The student beamed.

"Okay, for those who won't be able to get their hands on actual bills, come to me first and I'll provide you with some. Although they will be a bit different from those you did for your seat work a few months ago. Any more questions?"

"Teacher, do our parents know about this and do we have to evict them from the house during those days?"

"Another good question. My answer is yes, your parents are already aware of this part of the project since the start but I will be meeting them this coming Saturday for further explanations. As to your second point, no you don't have to ask them to go because they will actually be monitoring your progress."

"WHAT?!"

"Yes, I will ask your parents and the parents of your partners to monitor your activities so you see you won't actually be alone for the whole weekend."

Ms. Tanada smiled at the disappointed looks of some of the official couples.

"I will be doing rounds during those days so you can also forget about asking your parents or your house-helps to do the housework. You are supposed to be adults living normal lives. Plus, to make things more exciting, I have asked Mr. Matsu to lend some of the baby dolls he used before to those who were supposed to be expecting babies. Afterwards I will be interviewing your parents about their opinions of the events of the weekend. After that you will have two weeks to prepare your final report."

"So, Teacher how are we going to be graded here?"

"Well, my basis will really be more on whether I think you've learned something from your past experiences and our lectures and discussions in class. This will be more of an evaluation more than anything else."

"But Teacher what if our parents are out of town during those days?"

"Then I will just rely on the parents of one half of the group," Ms. Tanada replied. "Please also tell me so that I can work that into my schedule for the rounds. Any more questions? Okay so what you need to do until then is decide which house you will use. I will be open for consultations any time and if you still have any questions or—"

"What if our parents don't approve of this part? My parents were already kinda against the project from the start."

"Then I will talk with them. Ask them if they can come to school or if I can visit your house to talk with them. If not then I will see them on Saturday. Any more questions? No more? Okay, let's get on with the lesson for today."

— 0 —

Hanamichi quickly changed into his jersey. The finals would be that weekend and their trainings had tripled in intensity. 

The door opened and Kaede walked in. His eyes blazed when he saw the redhead. Hanamichi grinned cheekily at him.

"Hey fox, how's your mom's parrot?" he wheedled, slowing down his actions.

Kaede ignored him.

"Oh yeah, Chu will be returning your dad's books next week. Hey, maybe we can all do our weekend project in your house too!

"Shut up idiot!" Kaede finally growled. "I will never let any of your friends step foot on my house ever again!"

"Whatever," Hanamichi said, chuckling maniacally before leaving the room.

Kaede balefully eyed the closed door before sighing and slumping on his locker as his mind went back to the events of a few days before. 

He really did not know what had possessed him to invite Hanamichi to look at his newly bought scanner. He certainly didn't want to gloat over his new possession since he knew that Hanamichi and his friends wouldn't be impressed anyway. 

Then that very same afternoon the whole Sakuragi gang had arrived at his front doors and he had spent several hours of total chaos. Hanamichi had lost all inhibitions with his friends around. They had chased each other all over the house, taught his mom's pet parrot some swear words, gone through his dad's book collection, and basically acted like the clowns that they were.

That night Kaede had slumped into his bed exhausted beyond belief. It had been hell. 

Never mind that the house had actually sounded more alive during those few hours than the whole time Kaede had lived there. Never mind that he had actually wanted to laugh out loud when Hanamichi had sputtered loudly after being dumped in the swimming pool. Never mind that he had actually been hungry enough to eat a lot for probably the first time in his life. Never mind that Mina's plain dinner and Hanamichi's too sweet dessert had actually tasted better than what his cook had ever prepared for him. Never mind that he had to fight desperately the juvenile reaction to blow Hanamichi a raspberry after beating the redhead in a playstation game.

It had been pure hell. Kaede did not have the time of his life during that brief visit. NO. HE. DID. NOT!

Kaede shook his head before resuming changing his clothes.

They would spend the weekend in Hanamichi's home whether the redhead liked it or not. Besides, it was payback time for nearly wrecking his house.

But first he and his partner had a basketball finals to win!

ARC:

1. Nyork! Mental block is so not cool. Life also sucks—I'm all out of creative ideas. But I did get all those nice reviews so I told myself: self, you have to finish this; you owe it to your reviewers to finish the damn thing. So there, guys thanks and hope you like this until the forthcoming end. 

2. Oh my, this fic is almost a year old. I'm like one of Ms. Tanada's students. I didn't really realize how much I've put into this little project until I read my previous chapters, in the hope that I will get back the thread of the story. I also realized just how much grammatical error I did. *wince*

3. He-he, ehem! And now the end is near…


	18. Interlude: Meetings and Games

Playing House Interlude: Meetings and Games 

"Good afternoon everyone," Ms. Tanada bowed before the assembly of parents and teachers. "I'd like to thank you all for coming."

"Right, right," one father said from the back. "Let's start this thing so we can end early. I still have a meeting today."

"Hush Kuromatsu!"

"But dear I still have to—"

"Quiet dear!"

Ms. Tanada cleared her throat and looked away from the dark haired couple who were now quarrelling quietly. 

"As I was saying…uhm…where was I?"

"You were about to tell us the reason for this stupid project!" the dark-haired man quipped, looking up from his argument with his wife. 

"Hush!"

Ms. Tanada looked straight at the man. Somehow the haughty dark blue eyes reminded her of one of her trouble pupils. She glowered at him.

"I think we all have partial knowledge from our children of what this project is all about," a small lady in front with auburn hair spoke up. "What we'd like to know are the details—the why and the how most especially."

Ms. Tanada broke off her staring match with the father at the back and gratefully smiled at the woman. She then proceeded to tell the assembly the history of the project and what the final task involved.

— 0 —

"This is it guys!" Ryota announced solemnly to his team. "The moment we've all been waiting for—the Winter Championship. We've worked so hard. We took the trophy last summer and we can get it this season too!"

"YEAH!"

The lockers rattled with the force of the group's shout.

'LET'S GO OUT THERE AND WIN! SHOHOKU!"

"FIGHT!"

People started piling out of the small room. Ryota pulled Hanamichi aside and let the others pass.

"I know you and that Oda guy have this long-standing rivalry between you," he whispered to the redhead. "I guess I don't have to tell you to do your best out there."

"Of course! This genius will not let the team down! Oda will fall again!"

"He has become better than before. Some say he's the new Sendoh."

"Hmp! I defeated Sendoh last year and this year too! I can defeat Oda or any other star player anytime!"

Ryota patted Hanamichi's shoulder.

"Guess I don't have anything to worry about you. You're still overconfident as usual."

"Of course!"

Hanamichi laughed heartily, not minding the implied insult in his captain's words. Inside his head a bubble of happiness spread. He saw himself defeating Oda, taking the trophy, and getting not just Haruko's love but Yoko's as well. Just as the two girls were about to approach him a shadow loomed and burst his dream—

"Idiot, are you going out to the game or are you just going to stand there all day?"

Hanamichi blinked and saw that only he and Kaede were left.

"Ahh! Those morons left the genius behind!" he growled as he rushed out of the room.

"You were too busy daydreaming to notice," Kaede answered, easily falling in step with the redhead.

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I did."

Hanamichi stopped a moment.

"Oh yeah. You did," he said before resuming his brisk walk and his argument. "Well why didn't you say something earlier?"

— 0 —

"I did say something earlier, I gave all those letters through your sons and daughters, didn't you get them?" Ms. Tanada answered, hiding her frustration. Somehow she knew that the Terrible Gigantic Head of Doom would not be appropriate for the crowd she was facing. But she was considering using it every minute that passed by.

"Well my daughter told me about it but she never showed any letter," a mother said.

"That's not important! What I want to know is should my son and his partner have the same room and sleep on the same bed too?"

— 0 —

"Noooo!" Hanamichi wailed.

Ayako whapped his head with her fan.

"Coach Anzai thinks this is the only way so you better follow him!" she shouted.

"But I want to defeat Oda all by myself! The fox will only get in my way!"

"Idiot! You're the one who's going to get _my_ way," Kaede muttered.

Coach Anzai stepped up to the two glaring teammates.

"Sakuragi. Rukawa. You two proven time and again how much better you play when you work together. You both have the same goals right?"

"Of course!" Hanamichi yelled.

"Our goal is to win!" the two cried in unison.

— 0 —

"What?! My boy has never had to lift a finger all his life! And now you want my darling son to actually follow that ridiculous schedule just so he can pass your class? Preposterous! Kuromatsu tell this woman that what she is asking is impossible!"

The dark-haired woman stood imperiously from the back.

"It will just be for two days. And the weekend schedules are not that loaded. They will just do the dishes and the laundry and mostly just take care of the baby."

"Baby?" the woman shrieked. "You want my boy to become a nursemaid to some snotty brat?"

"It won't be a real baby!" Ms. Tanada quickly said. "It will be the same dolls that they brought home before."

"Oh those things again!" an elderly man said. "I liked the idea that young people know how hard it is to take care of babies. Maybe they will think twice about having one. Lady, you got my vote for this project. I'll even allow my daughter and her partner to stay at my house. Heck that Youhei kid practically stays there all the time. And he even brings his friends too!"

The elderly woman beside him smiled. 

"My daughter has never had much friends until this project started. I agree with my husband, this weekend part of the project will also be good for them."

Many other murmurs of assent were heard.

"Wait! I still refuse. I will not let my son be sullied by—"

"Ah! Cut the crap lady and let your son grow up!"

The dark-haired woman slumped back into her chair with a stupefied look. She had never been treated so rudely before. Beside her, her husband looked at the speaker and smiled.

"I'm glad to hear that," Ms. Tanada sighed. "Well then why don't we move on to the next part of the meeting? I'll call on the parents of each teammates so that you can all know each other and talk about special arrangements for your sons or daughters."

— 0 —

"This time I will certainly defeat you Sakuragi!" Oda yelled as his three-pointer hit net.

Kaede and Hanamichi glared at the boy then eyed each other. Ryota, who was dribbling the ball between them, eyed the two players and smirked. He bounced the ball towards Kaede who spared one last glance at Hanamichi before rushing off towards their end of the court. 

Oda quickly guarded Kaede but the boy didn't stop. He kept rushing towards the goal. Oda firmly planted his feet just under the net daring Kaede to make a slam dunk.

Kaede glared at his opponent. Without looking, he passed the ball to his back and executed a turn-around letting Oda see Hanamichi executing a perfect jump shot. Oda watched the ball sail in smoothly then turned to see Hanamichi and Kaede with identical smirks on their faces. The two turned around and jogged away.

Away from the three, Ryota also wore a smug look on his face. His two war-freak players were psyched and primed. The game was theirs. 

— 0 —

Ms. Tanada started the roll call and soon parents were mingling with each other.

The auburn-haired lady from the front approached the dark-haired couple.

"Hello, I believe my Hanamichi is your son's partner."

— 0 —

The buzzer sounded. Kaede and Hanamichi landed together after securing the last rebound of the game. They glared at each other then at the ball they held between them. 

All around them Shohoku players and supporters shouted with frenzy. 

The two continued to glared at each other.

Everyone in the stadium noticed the crackling energy surrounding the two players and silence blanketed the whole area.

Kaede raised an eyebrow. Hanamichi knitted his. They simultaneously dropped the ball then, in front of hundreds of spectators, they took a step forward, shared a high-five, and clasped each other's hands firmly.

— 0 —

"So, Mrs. Sakuragi, tell me about your daughter."

-TBC-

ARC: 

1. One down, two to go...

2. Yes, the arguing couple are Rukawa's parents and the auburn woman is Mrs. Sakuragi, and the elderly couple who liked the doll idea are Mina's parents. Ain't they all nice?

3. Kuromatsu = Japanese black pine.


	19. Chapter 12: The Weekend

Playing House Chapter 12: The Weekend 

Mrs. Sakuragi opened the door and beamed at Kaede's tall form. The boy bowed then turned slightly to reveal his parents standing beside a long, black limousine.

"Oh!" Mrs. Sakuragi stepped outside. "I didn't know you were dropping Rukawa off. Would you like to come in?"

Mrs. Rukawa eyed the small apartment and grimaced. She caught her son's glare and composed her face into something more appropriate. Mr. Rukawa just kept glancing at his watch.

"Uhm…no, thank you," she replied. "We just wanted to see where my Kaede would be spending the next two days, right Kuromatsu?"

Mr. Rukawa nodded but kept his eyes glued to his watch. Mrs. Rukawa moved forward to embrace Kaede.

"Now, Kaede be good and—"

"Hey mom what's going on here?" Hanamichi emerged from the house wearing a pink apron with sunflowers as a design over a shirt twice his size and a matching pink handkerchief with bright yellow spots that looked like a bonnet over his head. He was holding a spatula in one hand.

All the Rukawas stared at him. 

"Oh, the fox has arrived," the redhead continued as he surveyed everyone standing outside, his eyes settling on Kaede. "Well don't just stand there, come on in. You'll make my mom catch cold out here. Just because I agreed that you could come early I didn't mean Friday evening and I still say you tricked my mom into agreeing too and—"

"Is this little Hana-darling?" Mrs. Rukawa butted in, coming forward and pinching Hanamichi's cheek. The boy was too stunned to react. "She's a bit taller than I expected and she has a weird voice, do you have a cold or something? Nevertheless, you really are a cutie."

She turned and glared at Kaede. "Kaede-dear you will behave in front of this girl and treat her good," she said.

"It's running late, we have to go," Mr. Rukawa said from beside the car.

Mrs. Rukawa glanced at him before turning back to the still speechless redhead.

"Now, darling, I'm sure you and Kaede will get along fine. Someday you have to come to our house and we can talk all about your little project, hmm? We have to go."

She kissed Hanamichi then pecked her son before getting into the car, waving like a queen. A heavy silence descended on the trio that watched that the fast disappearing car.

"Idiot, what are you wearing?" Kaede finally blurted out, galvanizing Hanamichi into full ranting mode. 

"What do you mean by that you fox? And what did your mother say about me? I am not a cutie! Cuties are for girls! I am not a girl!"

Mrs. Sakuragi cleared her throat. "Well, actually dear, Kaede's parents seem to believe that you're a girl because of your name."

"What?" Hanamichi screeched.

"I think we better go in now," Mrs. Sakuragi said before her son could erupt into more tirades. "I think I smell the dinner burning."

Hanamichi cursed then sprinted into the house. Mrs. Sakuragi and Kaede followed.

"I'll show you where you can put your things," Mrs. Sakuragi said as she walked into the house. "It's a bit small."

"I'm the one imposing," Kaede whispered. 

"Oh please don't think that! My son's friends always sleep here."

Kaede raised an eyebrow.

"I love it when they do actually," Mrs. Sakuragi smiled. "My son is always so alive when he's with people. He takes after his father, always making friends easily. Well here we are. You can freshen up a bit or change your clothes. Dinner will be along shortly."

"Thank you," Kaede said.

Mrs. Sakuragi turned to leave.

"Uhm," Mrs. Sakuragi looked back and could have sworn that Kaede was blushing as he asked, "does he always wear that apron when he cooks?"

Mrs. Sakuragi grinned. "Yes. Actually we only have that one apron so when it's your turn to cook, you'll have to use it too."

— 0 —

The next day started early and proceeded from bad to worse—well for Kaede at least. He opened his eyes only to have a screaming mass of plastic skin, wet diaper, and electronic wailing thrust into his face.

"Wake up, fox! Ken needs to have his diaper changed and you have to feed him breakfast!"

Kaede grabbed the electronic baby and glared at Hanamichi who was already striding out of the room.

"Where are you going?" he asked getting out of bed and holding the baby carelessly in one hand.

Hanamichi looked back at him. "I need to go to the market early to get all the good stuff."

Kaede walked to the door.

"Kaede what are you doing to that baby?" Mrs. Sakuragi asked, coming out of her own room. "If that were real you would have choked it to death by now!"

Kaede guiltily shifted the still crying thing so that he was holding it properly. He walked to the front door with Hanamichi and Mrs. Sakuragi. The old woman nudged her son just before they went out. Hanamichi scowled at her but she stood firm. He sighed.

"Would you like me to buy you something while I'm out?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Kaede blearily looked at him then shrugged.

"More diapers," he mumbled before turning and heading into his room where had brought extra diapers.

— 0 —

"Oi fox," Hanamichi stomped towards his partner sitting on the couch. "What're you doing here?"

Kaede glared at him. "If you wake up the baby, you put him to sleep again."

Hanamichi looked down to see Ken sleeping on the couch next to Kaede.

"Oh," he whispered. "Well, he's asleep now. Come help me with the laundry."

Kaede slowly stood up. The baby shifted. Both boys froze. The baby kept on sleeping. Kaede managed to tiptoe to the back of the couch. The baby gurgled. They froze. It slept on. The two moved.

"Wait!" Hanamichi whispered, looking back and reflexively holding Kaede's arm. "I think you should put a pillow beside it. It might roll off or something."

He looked at Kaede and saw the other boy staring at the restraining hand. Hanamichi let go as if he was burned. Kaede grunted at him before going back to the couch to put some pillows around the baby.

— 0 —

"No! No! No! Jeez, fox, the way you're doing it, it looks like you don't know how to do the laundry!"

Kaede glared at Hanamichi. The redhead placed his head to one side and gazed at the other boy. Kaede transferred his glare to the washing machine.

"You're rich," Hanamichi said slowly, as if he was trying to solve a complicated problem.

"So?" Kaede asked balefully.

"You have lots of servants."

"Brilliant deduction."

"You don't have to do anything in your house." Hanamichi grinned. "You really don't know how to do a simple thing like laundry, do you?"

The washer would have melted at the intensified glare given to it. Hanamichi cackled.

"Rukawa doesn't know how to do laundry!"

"Shut up stupid!" Kaede threw a box of detergent at the redhead, sprinkling him all over with white powder.

Hanamichi stopped laughing. A glint appeared in his eyes. He grabbed the hose and sprayed water over the other boy. Kaede retaliated by throwing clothes at his partner. Mrs. Sakuragi found them later trying to punch each other in a room full of slippery bubbles.

— 0 —

"Why am I doing this again?" Kaede asked for the nth time that morning.

"Because you can't hold Ken properly and cook lunch at the same time," Hanamichi answered smugly. "Besides it says on the schedule that we do all the chores this morning and cleaning the floor is one of them."

He looked down at his partner and laughed like crazy. Kaede was crouching on the floor with a piece of rag and a bucket full of water. He was wearing an old pair of jeans and a T-shirt with holes in it that he had borrowed from Hanamichi since all of his clothes were drying out. He was also wearing the headkerchief that Hanamichi had worn the previous night. He had only agreed to use it after becoming irritated with his sweaty bangs. He scowled at Hanamichi and resisted the urge to throw the dirty rag at the laughing redhead.

Ken burbled and Hanamichi shifted his attention to the baby. He made funny faces at it and soon it was emitting electronic laughter at him. Kaede went back to scrubbing the floor.

Mrs. Sakuragi smiled at the tableau they made in the kitchen.

— 0 —

"Hey fox, you can get the laundry while I do the dishes," Hanamichi said, standing up and gathering the plates one-handed.

"I can do that," Kaede growled. "You cooked."

"Yeah, but these are the only plates we have. I don't want them broken."

"I'll wash them. You get the laundry."

"You'll break all of them."

"I won't."

"You will!"

"I won't!"

"Yes, you will!"

Mrs. Sakuragi stood between the two glaring boys.

"Hanamichi, dear why don't you give Kaede a chance," she said. "I'm sure he'll be very careful."

"But mom!" Hanamichi wailed just as Kaede said a soft thank you to Mrs. Sakuragi.

"Hanamichi, come outside now."

Hanamichi pouted but followed his mother. Outside, Mrs. Sakuragi got her batch of clothes.

"You know, Hanamichi I didn't know how to do any household chores either when your father and I were married," she said as Hanamichi joined her. "I managed to break quite a lot of plates during those early days but your father always encouraged me to do my best despite my failures."

"But that's you and dad. I don't want to encourage Rukawa! He's a fox!" Hanamichi retorted sullenly. They heard a sound behind them and they both turned to see Kaede holding a plate in his hand.

"I chipped it," he whispered, looking at Mrs. Sakuragi. "Sorry."

Mrs. Sakuragi hurried over and examined the plate. "It's only a small chip, nothing to worry about, right Hanamichi?"

Hanamichi was too stunned to hear Kaede apologize to form a coherent reply.

— 0 —

"Ak! No! Don't leave it for too long!" Hanamichi shrieked as he rescued his favorite shirt from the hot iron. "Jeez! Look! I'll do this you just fold all those others that don't need to be ironed."

"I can do this!" Kaede stubbornly replied, holding on to the iron.

"But fox you don't know how to iron!"

"You don't either! I bet your mom does this most of the time."

"Well yeah but I'm still better than you!"

"I can do this! It's just like basketball. You just have to know the proper timing to this thing."

Hanamichi stared at Kaede with a look akin to awe before shaking his head.

"Okay! Jeez stubborn stupid guy! But you won't do my clothes. You'll iron yours so that you'll only ruin your own stuff!"

Kaede merely grunted. Hanamichi went out to put his clothes into his closet and met his mom.

"Where's Kaede?"

Hanamichi grinned.

"In his room burning his clothes!"

Mrs. Sakuragi peeked inside and saw Kaede concentrating on getting a crease out of his school uniform.

— 0 —

"Fox, give me that remote!"

Hanamichi lunged at the black thing in Kaede's hand. Kaede held it out of his reach.

"No fair! This is my house I should get the choice of what to watch!" Hanamichi grumbled trying to grab the remote while balancing Ken on his lap.

"For tonight until tomorrow it's my TV too," Kaede replied. "Besides this is NBA, don't you want to watch it too?"

Hanamichi glared at the TV and settled into his seat still grumbling under his breath. They watched in silence for a few minutes.

"I'm hungry," Hanamichi said.

"We just ate," Kaede said.

"Yeah, but I'm hungry now." 

"Then go get something," Kaede said, eyes never leaving the screen.

"I can't."

Kaede risked a glance at the redhead and saw the baby sleeping in the other boy's arms. He frowned at Hanamichi then at the TV then at the baby. The game went on a break. Kaede sprung up and sprinted for the kitchen. Hanamichi stared at the hall like a koi fish until Kaede ran back to the living room with some drinks and several snacks. He flung most of them on the table near Hanamichi before settling back into the couch. Hanamichi continued to gape at him.

— 0 —

"No! Nuh-uh! He slept with me last night, you get him tonight," Hanamichi insisted, shoving the baby into Kaede's hands.

"We officially start our project tonight," Kaede answered, giving back Ken to Hanamichi.

"Yeah, but you were here already and I still got him last night."

Mrs. Sakuragi came into the living room dragging some mattresses with her.

"Uhm…mom what're you doing?"

Mrs. Sakuragi smiled.

"You two are supposed to share everything right? So, you're going to share the living room for tonight."

Both boys opened their mouths to protest. Mrs. Sakuragi glared at them.

"No arguments."

They closed their mouths with a snap. Later on they didn't care who had the baby. They both slept like logs, exhausted from all the chores they had done that day.

— 0 —

Late the next morning, Hanamichi cooked breakfast while Kaede tried to feed a stubborn electronic baby.

"Hey Rukawa, it says here that we have to do the grocery today and the bills too," Hanamichi said as he read the placed on the fridge.

"Hello dears," Mrs. Sakuragi greeted as she entered the kitchen. She placed some bills and some money on the table in front of Kaede. The boy looked at them then at the old woman.

"Since you're going to balance the money, you might as well know how to pay the bills and put away enough money for the grocery and the rest of the month. Your teacher told us to let you do things hands-on, as much as possible," she explained.

Kaede nodded. Hanamichi sat down beside him and looked at the scattered materials.

"You do that, I'll feed the baby," he said.

Mrs. Sakuragi was surprised to see Kaede agree wordlessly. An hour later, the budget was done and she was even surprised at how good Kaede had managed the task.

"This is good," she beamed at Kaede. "You managed to stretch a small amount for quite a while. Maybe I should let you do our monthly budget from now on."

Kaede gave her a small smile.

"Don't encourage him mom," Hanamichi warned.

Kaede rolled his eyes while Mrs. Sakuragi chuckled.

— 0 —

Hanamichi and Kaede dumped the various bags of grocery on the counter and leaned tiredly.

"Oh my!" Mrs. Sakuragi exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen. "What happened to the two of you?"

Kaede's shirt was torn in several areas while Hanamichi's hair was disheveled and he was convulsively hugging the baby in his arms.

"This idiot's fans saw us in the mart," Hanamichi explained shuddering at the memory. "They actually liked him better with Ken in his arms!"

"Why don't you two change and rest for a while. Go on, shoo. I'll take care of this. In fact, why don't you take the rest of the afternoon off? I'll take care of Ken."

Hanamichi gawked at his mom. 

"But Mrs. Sakuragi…we need to do this," Kaede said, beating Hanamichi's protest.

Mrs. Sakuragi waved her hands at them.

"Oh, don't worry about it," she said. "You can always leave the baby to grandma while you two relax for a while, right? It says so in your schedule that Sunday afternoons are free."

The two boys looked at each other then back at Mrs. Sakuragi who just smiled at them. 

Kaede reached into the bag near him.

"We'll you put these away first," he said.

"I'll try to make Ken sleep while you do that," Hanamichi said, striding towards his room.

— 0 —

Hanamichi and Kaede entered the house bickering as usual.

"I got that point," Hanamichi said.

"No, the time was already over," Kaede insisted.

"Hello you two," Mrs. Sakuragi greeted, coming out of her room with Ken in her arms.

Kaede bowed to her and extended a bag of food.

"You bought dinner! Thank you! I'll set the table."

"If I lost, then why did you buy the food?" Hanamichi asked smugly as if the question made his point.

"It isn't for you stupid," Kaede replied.

"I'll still be eating it!"

"You better change quickly if you want to eat this while it's still hot," Mrs. Sakuragi shouted from the kitchen.

— 0 —

Somebody knocked on the door just as they were settling down on their meal.

"Hanamichi please get the door," Mrs. Sakuragi requested.

"Why me? Why not the Rukawa?"

"Hanamichi…"

The redhead stood up, grumbling. "You better not eat all the food fox!"

He hurriedly opened the door and saw Ms. Tanada outside.

"Eh? Teacher! What're you doing here?"

"I did say that I would be going around to look in on you guys," Ms. Tanada said, smiling. "Aren't you going to let me in?"

"Oh, yeah come on in," Hanamichi said, letting her enter. "We're just eating dinner. Gee, you really have good timing."

The two walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, Rukawa get one more plate, teacher is here."

Kaede glared at Hanamichi, his chopsticks were poised near his mouth. Hanamichi sat down and stubbornly glared back.

"I got the door," he said. "You get the plate."

Kaede stood up while Mrs. Sakuragi led Ms. Tanada to an empty chair.

"So, how are these two?" Ms. Tanada asked as Kaede placed the plate and utensils in front of her.

"They're quite good, despite all the fights, they work good together," Mrs. Sakuragi replied.

The two women talked on as if the two weren't there. Hanamichi and Kaede pretended they weren't listening while eating. Near the end of the meal, Ms. Tanada turned to Kaede.

"So, Mr. Rukawa you're going back to your house tonight?"

The two boys looked at her then at each other.

"They had quite a long day today," Mrs. Sakuragi interjected. "I think you should stay for the night Kaede. You do have your uniform here and your books too. I think you mentioned that your parents won't be home tonight anyway."

Kaede looked at her gratefully while Hanamichi unusually kept eating quietly.

— 0 — 

The house was silent. Ken was sleeping peacefully between the two boys stretched out on the floor.

"Hey, fox?" Hanamichi whispered. He had been sneaking glances at the other boy but couldn't see if Kaede was asleep on not.

Kaede grunted.

"Oh, I thought you were sleeping already," Hanamichi said.

"Then why did you ask me a question?" Kaede said.

 Hanamichi was silent for a long time that Kaede almost gave up on getting an answer.

"Hey fo–Rukawa did you…did you have fun these two days?"

Kaede's eyes widened in the dark.

"Hn," he answered.

"Is that a yes hn or a no hn?" Hanamichi asked, trying to peer into his face in the gloom.

Kaede sighed. "Did you?" he asked.

"Huh? Did I what?" Hanamichi asked.

Kaede sighed louder. "Did you have fun?" he clarified.

"Oh, yeah I guess. So did you?"

Kaede settled down into the mattress.

"Yes," he whispered.

In the dark, both boys smiled.

ARC:

1. I think Hanamichi would know more about household chores since he has to help his mom some time too. 

2. This one was quite long. Oh well, one more chapter to go!

3. Again and again, thank you to all those who reviewed. THANK YOU!


	20. Chapter 13: The Final Report

Playing House Chapter 13: The Final Report 

Ms. Tanada surveyed her students. She was fairly bursting with teacherly pride. They beamed back at her.

"All right class, this is it. The moment you have all been waiting for, the final presentation for the year. Class 2-3, let's play house!"

— 0 —

"Then we had to go through the whole schedule thing…" 

_"We couldn't decide whether we wanted the blue or the pink diaper so we fought in the middle of the aisle…"_

_"I never knew washing dishes could be so much fun!"_

_"I broke a nail."_

_"It was a miracle that the baby was still alive after that!"_

_"Then we found out that we had something in common after all—our shampoo!"_

_"Then we saw this infomercial and we were hooked."_

_"No matter how much we wanted to, we just couldn't make the budget work!"_

_"Hey I got that right!"_

_"We knew right away that we would file for divorce if it was real."_

_"I would have the house of course."_

_"I'd get the furniture especially those antiques."_

_"Did you know that there are about a hundred ways to cook tofu?"_

_"I just had to get out of the house before I hit something."_

_"She didn't want to listen."_

_"He snored."_

_"Washing clothes is tricky."_

_"The fox and I actually had a good time."_

The silence that lapsed after Sakuragi's statement covered even the rooms outside.

Hanamichi looked at everyone, confused at their reaction. Then he transferred his gaze to his partner.

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

Kaede sighed.

"Dumbass."

Hanamichi screeched and pounced on the other boy. The whole class sweatdropped and relaxed. Yup, they were still the same Sakuragi and Rukawa. They hadn't been abducted by aliens and replaced with buddy-buddy look-alikes.

— 0 — 

Mrs. Tanada walked to the front of the class after the last presentation. 

"This is supposed to be the part where I make a grand speech about how proud I am of all the things that you've done. But I won't bore you with that. Instead, I'll tell you all about—call it a present from me for making this project a reality."

Several students began murmuring excitedly.

"On your last day, I have been given permission to hold an informal gathering of all those who have been part of this project."

"Yay! It's party time!"

— 0 —

The whole class cheered. The feeling of euphoria was already so high that they cheered for anything and everything as they gathered in the gym.

"To fastfood for giving us instant food whenever we have to do our reports!"

Cheers! 

"To calculators that helped us do our budget!"

Cheers! 

"To never seeing those electronic babies again!"

Yay! 

Hanamichi added his loud voice to that particular salutation.

"Hana-darling!"

He turned and was horrified to see Mrs. Rukawa bearing down on him.

"And how are you sweetie?" she asked, pinching his cheek.

He yelped. Mrs. Sakuragi, who was sitting beside him, shook her head.

"Kaede don't be such a bore and greet darling Hana.

Hanamichi glared at Kaede. His eyes narrowed. If he didn't know that it was impossible, he would have sworn that Kaede was laughing at his predicament.

"Mrs. Rukawa, why don't we leave these two alone for a while and get something to drink?" Mrs. Sakuragi interrupted.

"Oh! Yes! Lets!"

The two ladies moved to the table and left their sons eyeing each other. A few minutes later a loud cry was heard from the table. The two saw Mrs. Rukawa staring at them then scurrying over to Hanamichi. She immediately began patting his chest and checking his muscles.

"Oh my!" she gasped, fanning her face. "I thought he…oh my!"

Kaede helped his mother sit down while Mrs. Sakuragi handed her a drink.

"Uh…mom, what happened?" Hanamichi asked.

"I told her that you're a boy."

"Oh my!"

"She seems to be taking it quite well."

Mrs. Rukawa took a long sip then finally regained her composure. She stared at Hanamichi. And stared. And stared.

Finally, unable to stand the scrutiny any longer, Hanamichi looked around and spotted Youhei talking with Mina's parents.

"Uh…I see Youhei…I think he's waving at me. I'll just go to him!"

"Wait! Hana-darling!"

Hanamichi stopped in mid-stride. He looked down at Mrs. Rukawa who took one of his hands.

"I don't know how I could have mistaken you for a girl…but anyway I just want you to know that even though you're a boy…"

"Uhm…even though I'm a boy?"

"Even though you're a boy…" Mrs. Rukawa suddenly surged upward and started pinching Hanamichi again. "I still think you're the perfect partner for my Kaede!"

— 0 —

The party lasted until well into the evening. Mrs. Rukawa had insisted on bringing Mrs. Sakuragi home while their sons stayed. Prof. Matsu's electronic baby had been a success with some of the parents. One rich father who owned a factory for toys wanted to develop a whole line of products for the baby toys.

In a quiet corner of the gym, Hanamichi and Kaede were indulging in their favorite pastime, glaring at each other.

"I won," Hanamichi insisted.

"Moron," Kaede muttered through clenched teeth.

They were interrupted by the gundan with Mina walking towards them.

"Yo! Hanamichi we're going to get some grub somewhere!" Takamiya said.

"Wanna come?"

Hanamichi wrenched his eyes away from Kaede's and grinned at his friends.

"Do you have to ask?" he smirked.

The others turned and began to walk away. Hanamichi took a few steps forward then stopped. He looked back at Kaede who was eyeing everything else but him. He turned his head to the side.

"What the hell are you doing you dumbass?" Kaede growled. "Your friends are waiting for you?"

"What're you going to do now?"

"What do you care? It's not as if we're still partners or anything."

Hanamichi continued to contemplate Kaede.

"Stop staring at me and go!" Kaede snarled, looking directly at Hanamichi.

He instantly regretted that decision. The redhead was grinning at him. He became even more nervous when Hanamichi stepped forward, hooked an arm around his shoulder and propelled him towards the waiting gundan.

"What the—let go of me you idiot!"

"Y'know, fox, technically we're still partners until the end of this year so wherever I go, you go too! See, like Youhei and Mina."

"They're different from us!"

Kaede struggled but Hanamichi's arm on him was firm. The redhead also went on as if he had not said anything.

"Who knows that newbie teacher might still be judging our performance until now," Hanamichi continued saying.

Kaede managed to catch a glimpse of Ms. Tanada looking at them.

"So, I figured we might as well go on with this. Next year we can go back to hating each other."

Hanamichi's grin widened as Kaede stopped struggling.

"Yo! Guys! The fox is coming with us too!"

"Cool!"

Kaede mumbled something.

"Hey, can we go to your house again?"

Kaede glared at Takamiya who smirked at him. He kept muttering under his breath but he allowed himself to be propelled outside with Hanamichi's arm still slung over his shoulder.

The redhead was right. He might get bonus grades for this sacrifice so he would just mutter and bear it. He'd eat with them and watch them makes fools of themselves. 

His eyes met those of Hanamichi's. 

He'd think about his absolute disgust of his partner tomorrow. Or next year. Maybe.

— 0 —

Ms. Tanada watched the two tall boys walk out of the gym. Of all the accomplishments her project had achieved, she would forever be proud of the fact that she had managed to convert the most stubborn duo in school. The future held more serious games but somehow she knew that Hanamichi Sakuragi and Kaede Rukawa would be able to survive anything thrown at them. Who knew, maybe one day they wouldn't be "playing house" but living in a house on their own. 

-END-

A/N: 

1. There. It's finally done. It's been one year. Let me acknowledge all those who have been a part of this project:

Annachan, Crescent Quetzalcoatl, Ginji-ban, sLL, ~kyou, has, vero, annedrew, anime_luverjc, silvercross, Kuroi Neko-kun, Jan1, Ilweran, SHF, Hagane, YUki-Yuki, Migo, keli, Ohmigod, Misaoshi, aki, sspanchan, Shinichi Dori-chan, kimeno-pebols, kimi-chan, Seonaid Mist, fiery frost, Hikaru Itsuko, Sae3, ||jayne||, chris37, sakura1988, Kenren, Mizu17, foxgaze, Wednesday, Seraph_Kirin, zaiduck, Rook, chris, ayu, foxhana, lykalyn, Angel Fire, kitsune-kun, okia, frozenfemale, GeNo C. iDe1, Rivers2, Unquestionable, Scalet Iori, Aoi-chan, rhygell, IcyMagno, unchained, Abyss, lambie, Tina Caps, Hisashi Loves Yelen, annalei, the nutty imp

To anyone I may have forgotten, sorry about that, but thank you everyone! Until the next fic!


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